Toni Morrison's Beloved:

nd
The Climactic 2 Book of her Three Part Christian Allegory
by Adam Stewart
 Toni Morrison's Beloved: The Climactic 2nd Book of Morrison's Christian Allegory

Introduction

When one looks even a little bit beyond the surface story in Toni Morrison's Beloved, the

symbols and allegory she uses as paintbrushes look more like C.S. Lewis then Uncle Tom's Cabin,

though it's undeniable that the truth that prompted the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin is present here. If

Lewis had been an African American woman with slave ancestors, who more comfortable with the

body, more poet then monumental mind, he could have beaten Morrison to writing this Trilogy. In

some ways she is more obvious then C.S. Lewis, beginning most of her works with a scripture verse(or

Christian allusion) and giving characters Biblical names, but in other ways much more elusive. The

allegory lies below the surface, hints and tinges of truth mostly obscured because of Morrison's

emphatic yet disjointed descriptive style. Morrison's Trilogy of Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise roughly

correspond to C.S. Lewis three allegorical works in the chronicles of Narnia, The Magicians Nephew,

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and the Biblical events

of Creation & the Fall, Redemption, Heaven & the New Creation.

Jazz begins the Trilogy by quoting from the Nag Hammadi , the corpus of writings of the first

Christian heretics, the Gnostics. “I am the name of the sound, and the sound of the name. I am the sign

of the letter and the designation of the division” (Jazz, inside cover). The image of the apple and Adam

and Eve throughout sings like a jazz riff throughout the rest of the book. The first sin in God's perfect

creation and the first heresy that took root after Christ's resurrection and the founding of the new

church are interminably linked. Both are rejections of God when his love is most heated, most pure,

and most apparent. Jazz is all about variations on that theme. While Adam and Eve remind the reader

of paradise, most of the notes Morrison's narrative plays are on the jazzy painful repetition of the song

of sin looped and reshaped time after time, measure after measure. Jazz music's chaotic seemingly un-

linked passages on the same thing are the perfect metaphor for this work. Men leave women. People
kill each other. Men persecute other men in slavery. People walk away from God and try to find

fulfillment in a thousand other places, trying to own, possess others in destructive abandon. The Nag

Hammadi quote strings together these 2 seemingly unrelated topics; music and the shapes of broken

relationship with God and people.. Book one sings a thousand mournful Miles Davis-esque variations

on the one song of sin.

Beloved then is the story of God's redemption in Jesus Christ. Allegorically it paints the

sacrifice of Christ, resurrection, and the sending of the first disciples. The primary focus of this essay is

Beloved, so I will give it only a brief mention here to emphasize it's place.

Finally, Paradise concludes the trilogy with a mix of revelation events, the last battle between

good and evil and the journey that eventually arrives in Paradise, where Jesus told the thief on the cross

he would be. “And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke

23:43). Paradise is capitalized in the Bible and capitalized in Morrison's title, because the place is one

in the same. Mavis escapes on the wheels of the redeemed death car, her version of Elijah's chariot, or a

car made out of the cross of Christ. Chariots typically represent war and violence, but with Elijah it is

redeemed into a heavenly flaming 4 horse transport with one stop service to the gates of Paradise.

“And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of

them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”(2 Kings 2:11) A vehicle of death becomes a

vehicle of life. The Cadillac that her kids died in becomes Mavis 4 cylinder Elijah-esque chariot to

reach the heaven of California's coast. Redeemed by being covered with maroon paint(the color of

Jesus Christ's dried blood), she sets out. Her road to Paradise is not as easy as the thief's or Elijah's. The

Cadillac breaks down, but when it does people help along the way. In the end she arrives though. Like

the Biblical heaven is not an ending but a beginning, so Morrison ends Paradise with “love begun.”

(Paradise 318). The new heavens and new earth, new tree of life, a new creation without the evil of the

first are not as fully defined in Paradise as in Revelation, but both fill the soul with longing for that

wondrous place. The book ends with Mavis in Paradise drinking in joyous wonder of “the
unambivalent bliss of going home to be at home – the ease of coming back to love begun”(Paradise

318).

Beloved is the most important of the three volumes in that it has received the most critical

acclaim, but more importantly in it's allegory being the most important in the Christian story. The

creation and fall look forward to the redemption found in Jesus Christ. Behind is hopeless water under

the bridge, repitition of a sad theme with no hope of key change or shift from minor to major. Forward

is more of the same if it didn't happen. But it did happen and the door of Paradise is open wide because

of it.

Christian Allegory in Beloved

Morrison begins Beloved with quoting Paul's letter to the Romans 9:25 "Those who were not

my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.''(Inside Cover).

This quote immediately focuses the attentive reader on the allegory that is going on here. Morrison,

always elusive, doesn't explain things fully, but the cryptic quote reveals how just as in the history of

Christ, one beloved, Jesus, dies so the other beloved “the world” can be adopted, Beloved in the novel

must die so Morrison's “world” of characters can be redeemed.

The three statements, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ has come again”, can all be

transposed to Beloved. Beloved died, Beloved was risen, and Beloved will come again. The redemptive

work of Beloved like that of Christ ripples out into the transformation of other lives, using similar

sacramental means to that in the Christian story. Like the Bible, martyrs and saints have supporting

roles in bringing that redemption about, though God is the main character.

“Beloved Has Died” – Parallels to Christ's Passion

Beloved contains 2 different passion narratives. The original Misery, and Sethe's sacramental re-

connection to that first Misery. First we'll examine how the original Misery parallels Christ's passion.

The similarities between Jesus and Beloved are numerous. Both, Beloved and Jesus were innocent of

the crimes they suffered for. Jesus “had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth”(Isaiah
53:9). Beloved dies as an innocent infant. In both stories an element of justice plays a role. Justice says

punishment must occur. God's justice says sin must be punished or there can be no reconciliation.

Justice in slave time said, runaway slaves must be returned. Slavecatcher and the Sheriff act as the

bringers of justice, carrying out what is right under the law of the time period. Sethe's/Beloved's

stunning act of sacrifice like Jesus sacrifice counters justice.“All we like sheep have gone astray; we

have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.(Isa 53:6).

Penalties can be transferred. An innocent sacrifice can absorb the guilt of those who deserve justice.

Beloved's sacarifice absorbs the wrath and burden of justice and leads to the freedom of Sethe, Denver

and others. Love and sacrifice trump justice.

In both cases, it was the loving will of the parent for the sacrifice to take place.. “It was the will

of the LORD to crush him“(Isaiah 53:9), and the will of Sethe to sacrifice Beloved. In both cases, the

sacrifice brought about freedom and redemption, to many people. Beloved's death immediately saves

Denver from death(substitutionary atonement) and that redemption eventually spreads to Paul D., and

the entire town. In both cases, only one sacrifice is needed. Stamp Paid(who's name suggests

justification) stops Sethe from killing other children. “A man ain't nothing but a man,” said Baby

Suggs. “But a Son?” Well, now, that's somebody”(23). A man is nothing and can't save anything. But

Jesus Christ the son is something. Beloved as a Christ figure is also something.

Other physical elements from the Passion account show up in random places. Mr Garners

grapes were “sour as vinegar”(192), like the bitter wine Christ refused. Beloved was “set down on...a

little table”(192), and covered with muslin, like a burial shroud.(192). In both passion's the instrument

of death was a common tool used for carpentry. Jesus dies by being nailed to two boards. Beloved

dies by saw. Both tools also are used in transforming trees which is what Christ's passion did. Saws cut

and shape, Hammer and nails bind trees together. Jesus dies on a cross(called commonly a tree).

Beloved dies in a shed made with wood from trees. Jesus passion transforms the cross from a symbol

of death to one of life. The novel does not go this far, but at the end Sethe could wear a shed or a saw
around her neck as a reminder of the freedom brought about Beloved's sacrifice.

The second passion account with the accompanying baptism of Sethe takes place on a

Friday(257), and recalls the original event in the arrival of a white man in similar fashion though purely

innocent this time.

The final most interesting parallel is Beloved's “becoming evil to destroy evil”. Jesus is

described as doing this. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God”(2 Co 5:21). Jesus absorbed all evil to such a great extent that he

became evil. This occurred while on the cross. In the case of Beloved, she is walking around abusing

people in her absorbing evil. It is astonishing that Morrison would weave this element into her tale, but

it seems to fit nearly perfectly. First of all, Beloved arrives 18 years later(156). 18 years in three parts is

- 6 years + 6 years + 6 years, or 666 the number of the devil. The narrative describes Beloved as “the

devil himself”(256). The reason Beloved's personality shifts and why Beloved is insatiably devouring

everything is because Sethe is trying to redeem herself by making it up to Beloved. 124 is “full of a

baby's venom”(3) because Sethe's sacrificing Beloved was sinful. Though there was love mixed in with

the motive and she will not let herself be forgiven. When Sethe refuses to forgive herself and tries to

justify herself, Beloved “becomes sin” or becomes the devil, in order to lead her to repentance. “Happy

is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. For when I kept silent, my bones

wasted away through my groaning all day long” (Psalm 32:1,3). Sethe is wasting away in silence

because she hasn't surrendered her sin or had it redeemed.

`After Jesus crucifixion, there is chaos, mourning, fear, and rejection. Peter denies Christ three

times and the disciples continually hide out in a room. Similar disharmony exists after Beloved's death

before her Resurrection. Sethe like Peter and the other disciples are plagued with guilt. Baby Suggs

loses faith because there's no resurrection. She is all about the body. When no body comes back she

quits preaching. The town rejects Sethe's family, like the early Christians were rejected by Rome in the
three days before the Resurrection.

The allegory is not exactly parallel, and the areas where it parts with the passion narrative

explain many eccentricities of the book. First of all, the motive of sacrifice differs. Sethe's primary

motive in killing Beloved was not salvation of others, but mercy killing. Sethe didn't want Beloved to

live a life of slavery. It was motivated by love, but not a love for those outside the family. In sharp

contrast, God the Father does not will Jesus sacrifice for Jesus own good, but purely for the salvation of

others, the adoption of the “beloved” who was not his beloved. It is a completely selfless act, while

Sethe's sacrifice has the additional “mercy” killing element to it. Despite this difference, the end result

is the same; redemption. A second difference is that Beloved's own willingness to lay down her life is

not apparent. Jesus clearly says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord

(Joh 10:18). Beloved as an infant does not in any clear way, freely give herself up as a sacrifice. Sethe

makes the decision for her. Because of this utterly crucial distinction, willing sacrifice becomes mercy

killing. Sethe's act is sin mixed with love. God the Father's act is love untainted by sin, because Jesus

lays down his own life for others. All sins must be repented of or destruction will occur. Sethe's un-

resolved guilt must be resolved later, by the resurrected beloved and an eventually re-connection to the

passion(Misery) narrative where she is given the chance to act differently.

Beloved Has Risen – “Christ's Resurrection”

The strongest identification with Jesus Christ is the fact that Beloved resurrects physically.

Morrison herself connects the Beloved's resurrection with Christ's. ”People who die bad don't stay in

the ground...Jesus Christ himself hadn't”(188). Dying bad is dying in innocence. Jesus resurrects from

the tomb he was buried in 3 days later. Beloved in innocence resurrects leaning against a “stump not far

from the steps of 124”(50) 18 years later. The stump of a cut down tree is meant to remind the reader

of the saw that originally killed her. The tree is a stump because the saw killed it. Beloved was killed

by the saw, but resurrected and quickly goes to lean against the instrument that killed her in sleepy

victory. It is like if Jesus was resurrected leaning against Calvary's cross or another nail filled object.
 In Christianity the Resurrection is not an optional belief, but the crux of the Christian faith. So it

is the crux of redemption in Beloved. “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are

still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we

have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”(1Co 15:17-19 ). Without the resurrection

of Beloved, Sethe would remains a prisoner of her past sins forever and the community would be

forever in disharmony.

Beloved comes back for similar reasons Jesus came back. First of all, without a resurrection

there is no way to know the crucifixion is a good thing. If Jesus did not come back the crucifixion

remains a tragedy. If Beloved did not return there would be no way for Sethe to know that Beloved did

not hate her for the sacrifice. There would be no victory and ultimately no redemption. Though it was

obvious from the beginning that Beloved's death did something in terms of saving, it's power of

alienation is by far the dominant element to it. Because of the Misery, 124 was transformed from Baby

Suggs communal gathering place, to a tomb. It was a a place of laughter, food and friendship and

became a place of haunting and death that no-one would come visit. If there is no resurrection, God the

Father comes off as cruel and vengeful. He kills his Son, Jesus to redeem others, and Jesus remains

dead. Without resurrection Sethe's act is viewed by everyone is inhuman. How could Sethe kill her

daughter with a saw? How could God kill his Son by nailing Him to a cross? Sethe like the Father

becomes vindicated and freed from any “sin” by the resurrection, but not until then, and not until the

whole community comes to believe in the resurrection and unite in prayer against the past sin is it

conquered. So as Beloved “becomes sin to conquer sin” and “absorbs the devil's evil to conquer him”,

the town people's creative musical prayers, like God the Father in Genesis to re-present the passion in a

way that ushers in the New Creation. Beloved becomes sin, to redeem.

Second of all, without a resurrection there is no evidence that good wins. There is no sign of

victory on the day after Good Friday. Effectively it has remained the day after Good Friday for 18

years. Stamp paid asks Baby Suggs, “You saying the whitefolks won? That what you saying?”(179).
The delay in resurrection causes even the books greatest saint, and exemplary disciple Baby Suggs to

lose faith because Beloved's death seems unshakeable proof that evil wins. Morrison uses the name

“Baby” to indicate Baby Suggs “childlike faith”. She has the baby-ish faith like a child that is necessary

to enter heaven. She has faith that hopes and loves just because God says so. Children believe

everything their parents tell them, uncritically on the basis of their character and love. Likewise,

Christians with childlike faith believe everything God tells them on the basis of God's character, love,

and infinite wisdom. Baby Suggs is passionate like Peter. Like Peter she does miracles like using

Christ's power of “loaves and fishes”(137). Even Peter, the Rock on which Christ promises to build the

church that the gates of hell will fall to, Peter who walked on water walks loses hope. In the last chapter

of John's gospel, Peter is back fishing again, holding the nets Jesus told him to leave and come follow

after Him. Even holy Baby Suggs who was always “giving advice; passing messages, healing the sick,

hiding fugitives, loving, cooking, cooking, loving, preaching, singing, dancing and loving everybody

like it was her job and hers alone”(137) gives up faith. Peter gives up his ministry and returns to the

nets Jesus called him from. Baby Suggs gives up her ministry and dies without seeing a resurrection.

The first page of Beloved, tells us that “Baby Suggs, was dead” Her faith cannot deal with one more

dead body. The death of Beloved, like Jesus death for Peter causes her to “quit the Word”(177).How

could anyone believe that Jesus crucifixion was a good thing if there was no resurrection? How could

anyone believe Beloved's Misery was a good thing without a resurrection? The church needs a bodily

alive Jesus. Baby Suggs needed a bodily alive Beloved. Baby Suggs is all about the body, the body that

should never be noosed, the body that should be loved, the body that must be resurrected. Peter would

never be persuaded back to his ministry without a resurrected Jesus. Baby Suggs would never be

persuaded back to hers without a resurrected Beloved.

A key passage in Sethe telling Beloved about the funeral. “I didn't understand it then. I thought

you were mad with me. And now I know that if you was, you ain't now because you came back here to

me and I was right all along...I only need to know one thing. How bad is the scar?”(184) Like that
moment when Christ ascended back to heaven, we don't know what the Father and the Son said, but it

seems like the Father would want to touch and heal the wounds and say, “My Son, Jesus I love you so

much. How bad are the scars?” Beloved's returning both vindicated Sethe and allowed for her guilt to

be redeemed.

Beloved Will Come Again – Ascension/Second Coming

Morrison calls Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise a trilogy so Beloved as Christ figure must be re-born

to redeem other situations. The Ascension sequence in Beloved has none of the joy of Christ's

ascension because it is also re-connection to the first misery or passion story. The leaving of Beloved

reminds Sethe of the first time she left. Beloved “disappeared, some say exploded right before their

eyes”(263). Paul D imagines her coming back and her saying, “Touch me. Touch me. One the inside

part and call me my name.”(263). This line which could be taken as sexual innuendo rather appears to

reference John 20:27 “Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out

your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." The closing thoughts about Beloved

as forgetting her “like an unpleasant dream”...and her tale “not a story to pass on” is linked to her like

Christ becoming sin to destroy sin. Because the sin Beloved became to destroy is forever pardoned, it

should be remembered no more. Sethe, Paul D, Denver and the whole town don't need to look into the

past or feel guilt or pain. What Beloved has redeemed must be forgotten. Beloved herself should be

remembered as Jesus should be. The richness of the sacramental imagery and the fact that the book

Beloved itself acts as a vehicle for sacramental memory bringing ugly truth's to light while redeeming

them is of utmost importance. “Beloved can never be entirely forgotten; her footprints continue to

come and go...in the pages of a book read, re-read and passed on from generation...in fiction as

Eucharist she is safely remembered(Stave 63). The book's invocation and benediction invoke the same

name “Beloved”, like Christians evoke Jesus name or the name of the Trinity because Morrison doesn't

want us to forget Beloved, just the sins she redeemed.

Trinity in Beloved
 The Trinitarian unity between Beloved and Sethe also mirrors the unity between God the

Father and Jesus Christ the Son. First of all, there is the shared scar. Sethe has “a chokecherry tree” on

her back.(15), and so “Beloved” shares the mark(239). The mark seems to connect Sethe with the

passion/misery of Beloved. In the African American slave experience lynching and hanging was the

chosen method of killing, while in Rome it was crucifixion. Both are deaths by hanging to trees.

Morrison choosing to use “chokecherry” brings the hanging to mind. When Sethe “bumped against a

tree [her] scalp was prickly...like someone was sticking fine needles into [her] scalp”(193). The union

between Sethe and Beloved is so strong that the suffering of the Tree and even the crown of thorns

physically manifests itself to hurt Sethe. Beloved's pain is Sethe's pain. The unity between the Trinity

in Christianity is described as 3 separate persons who are yet one God. Part of how this is explained as

that in every action of God, all three members of the Trinity act. Not three Gods, but one God. The

Father is not the Son, is not the Holy Spirit, but the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, the Holy

Spirit is fully God. In the creation story in Genesis, for example, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit

are all present and all act in the creative act. In the redemptive it is the same. The Father sends the Son,

the Son carries out the redemptive act, and individually applied by faith through the Holy Spirit,

usually through the means of the Holy Spirit. This same unity is described in Beloved. Before Beloved

resurrects, she is an ever present ghostlike being. After she resurrects they spend all their time together.

When Beloved resurrects they spend so much time together Denver has a difficult time telling them

apart(Stave 55). In a cryptic conversation with Denver, Beloved smiles off into the distance and says,

“Over there. Her face...Me. It's me.” Sethe's language later mirrors Beloved's. “She smiles at me and it

is my own face smiling”(215), and “You are my daughter, you are my face, I am you”(216). The

language sounds strikingly similar between Jesus talking about the Father. “Jesus said to him, "Have I

been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?” (John 14:9). Beloved's fascination with the time surrounding

her death seem not too distant from Jesus question on the cross, “My God, my God why have you
forsaken me?”(Mark 15:34). Jesus asked why. Beloved asks why too. Both share a mark of the tree(or

cross) an uncommon intimacy.

. The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit, who connects others to the Father, by the

work of the Son. The Holy Spirit works through redeemed people, or saints. Primarily the redemption

is transmitted in two ways, Word and Sacrament. Holy, Baby Suggs,the books premier saint and a

pastoral figure administers both in her clearing gatherings. She is a minister in the Word in her

preaching and “call” When she is wanting to quit because she no Resurrection occurs, Stamp Paid tells

her to continue preaching the Word and administering the call. “Can't nobody Call like you. You have

to be there”(178). Though atypical her sermon about the body is drawn from the Word and mirrors

Genesis's account in its language. Creation and re-creation come together. Her sermons are spoken to

slaves and emphasize loving the body and loving the flesh. The sermons give freedom and ownership

to what had been by their slave owners made property. The white people in the book talk about the

slaves as property or animals, but Baby Sugg's sermon restores their humanness and goodness of their

flesh. “[The white people] do not love your neck un-noosed and straight. So love your neck...And all

your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you go to love them”(88). Her call is a call of

freedom and redemption to those enslaved. “Let your mothers hear you laugh...and the woods rang”,

which sounds just like, “Let there be light, and there was light,”(Genesis 1:3). The gospel Word has

immediate power and impact. Baby Sugg's calls have immediate responses. “The women let

loose...laughing children, dancing men, crying women” Morrison highlights the powerful impact of the

Word at the re-connection with the Misery(Stave 61) by using different part of the creative language in

Genesis. “In the beginning there were no words. In the beginning was the sound, and they all knew

what that sound sounded like”(259). The phrasing there sounds like , “In the beginning, God created

the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the

deep”(Gen 1:1). The same powerful word that creates, redeems. Baby Sugg's sermon's bring joy, life,

and freedom. The womens song at the end does the same. Morrison is simultaneously allegorically
painting Christ's redemption story and mirroring it to the black slavery experience. Freedom from both

types of oppression is the heart of it. Baby Suggs Word to Sethe is the Word she has needed to obey

for years, to “lay it all down”(174). The core of the novel is Sethe's need for closure, forgiveness, and

love. Not allowing the past to be redeemed, is where all the demons that haunt 124 come from. Sethe's

burden is not just guilt over killing Beloved, but sadness over the whole slavery situation. While Stamp

paid hesitates outside Sethe remembers Baby Suggs and how there would be “no more discussions,

stormy or quiet, about the true meaning of the fugitive Bill, the settlement Fee, God's Ways, and Negro

pews; antislavery, manumission, skin voting...Dred Scott...and other weighty issues that held them in

chairs...pacing them in agony or exhilaration.”(173) Both the evils of slavery and her personal evil

haunts her. Beloved's redeeming work impacts both evils.

The Word also brought freedom to the Sweet Home men. The reason that they were different is

because Mr. Garner's words gave them a certain freedom in the midst of slavery. Morrison's picture of

the Sweet Home Men, is of people who seem more masculine, more human and more alive. The Sweet

Home Men are saints. Sweet Home in that they've reached heaven on earth in some way. They end up

as martyrs and evangelists.

The sacramental images are equally vivid and usually accompany the Word. After Sethe is

connected to Beloved's original passion and freed from her sin, the women sing their song, and Sethe

trembles, “like the baptized in its wash”(261).In addition to preaching the Word, at her clearing

gatherings Baby Suggs administers the sacrament. By the Holy Spirit, holy Baby Suggs multiplies the

elements of blackberries and pies...borrowing Christ's power of “loaves and fishes”(137). Later in Baby

Suggs presence, Stamp Paid administers the sacrament in the same form of blackberries “tasting so

good and happy that to eat them was like being in church” to Denver(136) In perhaps the most startling

Eucharistic parallel, Denver “took her mother's milk right along with the blood of her sister”(152).

Immediately after her salvation, she communes in both kinds, body(mother's milk) and blood. Denver

communes again in jealousy after Paul and Sethe have sex. “Denver dipped a bit of bread into the
jelly[a bit of bread into the wine]. Slowly, methodically, miserably she ate it”(19). The connection to

the Misery, because of her jealous motives brought her misery. “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or

drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the

Lord...That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”(1Co 11:27-30)

Saints and Martyrs

As well as having a Trinity, a Passion and Resurrection story, Beloved contains many saint and

martyrs. I've already delved into Baby Suggs and will go into Paul D later in depth so in this section my

focus will be on; Denver, Stamp Paid, and the Sweet Home Men.

Denver is the first to be redeemed by Beloved's sacrifice. She and Sethe don't have to be

enslaved because Beloved's Misery leads to their freedom. Denver also receives both sacraments. She

tastes the first Eucharist of milk and blood from Sethe's blood crusted nipple, and her birth has

baptismal flavor to it. She is born in a boat like Moses and her “watery birth” marks her as a

savior(Stave 37). Like Moses who went before God often in petition and was heard and took a key role

in the deliverance of his people, Denver acts with Paul D as prophetic figure in the novel. “Somebody

had to be saved, but unless Denver got work, there would be no one to save, no one to come home to

and no Denver either”(243, 252). “When Denver asks her community for help and alerts them to the

presence of Beloved, her actions trigger a chain of events which ultimately save her mother and heal

her community”and cause Beloved to ascend to heaven.(Stave 37).

Stamp Paid is also a savior, and prophet figure. He gives Denver her first communion with the

“best blackberries in the country” and “had he not been there, chopping firewood, Sethe would have

spread her baby's brains on the planking”(170). He saves Denver's life once, which opens the door for

Denver to save the family later. Stamp Paid like or prophet acts as both an agent of truth and love(170).

In truth He alerts Paul D about Sethe's past. When he tells Paul D the light of prophetic love departs

from 124 and it became “like it was before Paul D came to town”(170). The ghosts and spirits return.

In love he finds Paul D. in the church basement and gets him to come back. Stamp Paid is a key figure.
His name “Stamp Paid” suggests freedom and redemption. “Stamp Paid” is linked more by name with

Jesus then any other character. He refers to himself as “soldier of Christ”(170) and when approaching

124 he vows to “rely on the power of Jesus Christ to deal with things older, but not stronger then He

Himself was”(172). The character of Stamp Paid was very involved with Baby Suggs in the fight to end

slavery. He frees slaves in the underground railroad. He saves Denver's and many other people's lives

and all he asks in return is to walk through “your door as though it were his own”(172). The evil

presence of unredeemed sin even turns this great saint away. “Spirit willing; flesh weak”(173). Only

Paul D can

The Sweet Home Men like the first 12 disciples, or first men to become free in Christ, died as

martyrs. Six-o like numerous Christian martyrs is burned alive and like many of them laughs”as if for

joy(226). Six-o, like most martyrs know heaven is real and recognizes, that his white killers are

actually blessing him by destroying his body. “To live is Christ, to die is gain...My desire is to depart

and be with Christ, for that is far better.”(Phil 1:21,23). While “his feet are cooking; the cloth of his

trousers smokes”(226) he laughs “so rippling and full of glee it put out the fire”(229). As the number

he is named by changes from the imperfect six to God's number of completion seven, he shouts

“Seven-O! Seven-O!”(226)They answer his prayer by shooting him.

Paul A is also martyred, decapitated like John the baptized and hung from a tree like Christ,

except with a noose. Paul A's “a” stood for alive. No one is more alive then a martyr. Paul F's “f” is for

freedom. Even though he's sold off by Mrs. Garner, she weeps over separating the brothers. He is sold

elsewhere but the love makes her free. Finally, Paul D's “d” is for “dead”, partially because he is dead

before Stamp Paid gets him to reconcile with Sethe, but mostly because as prophet his job is to conquer

death and raise the dead.

Paul D as Biblical Prophet

Paul D's story parallels the Biblical Paul in many ways. His key role is prophet, but before

diving into that, let us examine some other elements of his story. Though Baby Suggs, Stamp Paid,
Denver, and the townspeople all play redemptive roles in the story, Paul D is the most crucial figure.

It's his arrival into the story that prompts the resurrection of Beloved. When Paul D. arrives at 124 the

descriptions of the house mirrors the tomb where Jesus bloody corpse was laid. Paul is greeted by

“pulsing red light”, the verb “pulsing” used to remind of “pulsating baby blood that soaked [Sethe's]

fingers like oil”(5). The bloody corpse still haunts the place in the form of a disembodied ghost. Like

the day before Easter, Paul D. arrives to find sad women. Happiness is shown in people's eyes, but

Sethe eyes are described as “two open wells that did not reflect firelight” that schoolteacher “punched

the glittering iron out of”(9). Her sorrow is meant to connect Sethe to Jesus Mother Mary weeping at

the tomb. Mary wept for 3 days. Sethe 18 years. Paul D. walks like the Biblical Paul as the messenger

of God into the doorway of death. “Grief soaked him...a kind of weeping clung to the air...where [the

red] had been” but he made it to “the normal light surrounding the table...dry eyed and lucky”(10). The

quote that begins the book is by the Biblical Paul, and it is actually an old Testament quote from the

book of Hosea repeated in his letter to the Romans. Hosea was the prophet who God asked to marry a

prostitute who would continue to be unfaithful to him as a literal example of what Israel was doing.

Like God in continually accepting his adulterous people in open arms, Hosea continued to accept back

his wife Gomer, buying her from the arms of other men. “The sex scene between Paul D. and Sethe,

links us to Hosea, whose prophetic embrace of Gomer links to God's passionate embrace of Israel,

which links to his freeing them from slavery, which links us to the slavery freedom/allegory that links

with the Christian allegory. Paul D., like the Biblical Paul is both an evangelist and a prophet after

Hosea who is “blessed”(17). “And the LORD said to [Hosea], "Go again, love a woman who is loved

by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to

other gods and love cakes of raisins." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver... And I said to her,

"You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so

will I also be to you."(Hos 3:1-3). Like any good Biblical prophet, Paul D's presence and words brings

people to repentance, confession and faith. “Strong women and wise saw him and told him things they
only told each other: the way past the Change of Life, desire in them had suddenly become enormous,

greedy, more savage than when they were fifteen, and that it embarrassed them and made them sad,

that secretly they longed to die-to be quit of it “(17). Prophet/Evangelist Paul meets Sethe, a virgin

Mary type figure, who has not seen a resurrection. Unlike the Biblical Mary however Sethe was

involved in the crucifixion and never repented of her role. His presence brings her prophetically like

Hosea into God's embrace and the beginnings of repentance. Sethe's tears of repentance and joy

“com[e] fast”(17). The breasts that were abused, and blood covered, for the first time are in years are

loved. “She knew the responsibility of her breasts, at last, was in somebody else's hands”(18). “His

body an arc of kindness...her breasts in the palms of his hands. He rubbed his cheek on her back and

learned that way her sorrow, the roots of it; its wide trunk and intricate brunches”(17). Paul like Jesus

Christ,and any good evangelist who represents him embraces us, passionately loves Sethe in all her sin.

He kisses the wounds of her own sin and death(the tree/cross), holds the parts of her that were sinned

against(the breasts who's milk was stolen from) and in doing so begins to redeem her. In surrendering

to Paul D in the sexual act, Sethe begins to repent, to give her sin to God occur, to heed his prophecy,

and like Gomer in Hosea's arms begins to return to life. Paul's loving act like God's, “embraces while it

accuses”(271). Truth and love meld together. Love allows truth to be spoken because love accepts even

though truth accuses. After “It is finished”, the house screams and shakes like the earthquake as Christ

was crucified. The devil embodied in the house screams pitches, convulses, and shakes and death

works begins to work backwards. The spiritual battle takes on physical elements as Paul wrestles

“recking everything in sight” as he's being attacked by tables and random objects. This Paul like the

Biblical Paul knows about these kind of things. He knows he does “not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”(Ephesians 6:12) Paul invokes the name of

God, to win the fight, “God damn it! She got enough without you! She got enough!", and slowly things

settle down and get “rock quiet”(18) Morrison directly links Paul's kissing of Sethe's back, the sign of
sin to the fighting of the house. “Kissing the wrought iron on her back had shook the house, had made

it necessary for him to beat it to pieces. Now he would do more.” After they have sex, after God

passionately embraces the sinner, he finds what Hosea found after he married a prostitute, Paul D, he

finds the ugliness of sins. He realizes the tree is a “not a tree as she said”, but a “revolting clump of

scars”(21). Later, he finds out the story of how Sethe murdered her kid and when he does he leaves her.

He continues to love and his love makes him literally sick. The Biblical Paul was blinded on the road to

Damascus as he was on his way to persecute the church. After Paul D. rejects Sethe and walks away,

Stamp Paid finds Paul D in a church basement with “warmth and red eyes”. The red color signifies his

anger towards Sethe, his blindness towards her because of the bloody story of Beloved and the saw.

Biblical Paul was stuck in the framework of religiosity and because of it persecuted church. Morrison

placing Paul D in a church basement connects Him with the blindness of the rest of the town. His

drunkenness makes the blindness deeper as well as supplying a physical reason for the bloodshot eyes.

Sethe doesn't want to forgive herself, but Paul's love and plans echoes God's, “plans to prosper

and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future”(Jer 29:11). He tells Sethe at the end “me and

you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow”. Paul's prophetic love,

like God's love is utterly relational, expansive like the sky and beautiful. It's love that says the past is

forgiven, let's begin again. It's love like Hosea's love that continues to buy back Gomer from

prostitution and sin. It's love that still loves, even when the tree remains on Sethe's back. It want's the

past to be forgiven and the future to be taken, one step at a time forward. “He wants to put his story

next to hers.” God wants to put his story next to ours. Jesus embodies perfect love in washing feet,

which Sethe offers to do for Paul D(7), and Paul offers to do for Sethe(272). The two acts of foot

washing Christlike love bookend the story. At the end, after Sethe says in sorrow, about Beloved, “She

was my best thing”, Paul tells Sethe, “You your best thing, Sethe. You are”. Sethe is crying like Mary

probably was crying when Jesus ascended back to heaven, thinking He was her best thing. Paul's

prophetic answer here reminds her the truth that Jesus died to redeem us into relationship. The beautiful
thing about this scene is, that in all Christians, the Holy Spirit is present. “And I will ask the Father, and

he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world

cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and

will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) As Paul D is embracing Sethe, though the Christ figure Beloved has

resurrected and ascended, Paul D with the Holy Ghost inside him is embracing her. Him holding her is

like John the apostle holding Mary on ascension day. The Son is ascended, the Father is invisible, but

the Holy Spirit lives in every believer. Beloved is ascended, but Paul D, a believer filled with Holy

Spirit holds Sethe and it is as beautiful as if Beloved herself was holder. He is in effect saying, “Sethe,

you are not alone”. “Mary, bearing Jesus wasn't your best thing. What you did wasn't your best thing.

You are your best thing. Surrender to my love. Receive me and I will receive you. The endless

repetition on the theme of sin is past. Turn off that Jazz, tomorrow is endless and filled with un-

imaginable beauty. Paradise is our future.

Concluding Thoughts

It is quite astonishing how complete the allegory is here. Whenever I thought I'd uncovered the

full picture of it, I would stumble upon yet one more layer. It seems almost inconceivable that Morrison

was not intending every piece of it, and even more shocking that the world seemingly is not making

more of a big deal about her, especially the Christian world. Beloved is every bit as rich in Christian

allegorical content as the Chronicles of Narnia, perhaps even more so. It's not a children's book so some

of the sexual metaphors are explored in a way that Lewis could not in writing for children. The theme

of redemption is universal, but the poetic nature of Beloved and the concrete arrow it points to Jesus

Christ is what makes Beloved truly divine as a book. The fully truth and ugliness of sin as well as

Christ's freedom, and how Christ's church and Christians like William Wilberforce work in the world

today to end all other types of slavery, reconciling and uniting the broken and weary to their maker and

with each other is what will permeate its page and swim through this readers head long after the last

page was read. For those thoughts I am grateful.

Bibliography

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Princeton: Plume Books, 1988.

Morrison, Toni. Jazz. Princeton: Plume Books, 1993

Morrison, Toni. Paradise. Alfred A. Knopf, NY/Toronto1998

Stave, Shirley. Toni Morrison and the Bible – Contexted Intertextualities. Peter Lang, NY 2006

The Holy Bible – English Standard Version