Beloved by Toni Morrison is about a woman whose name is Sethe. She escaped slavery and lives in Cincinnati with her daughter, Denver, in a house that is haunted by the ghost of her dead baby. Sethe’s past is full of pain, and the ghost reminds her of the terrible things she went through.
One day, a man named Paul D, who is someone Sethe knew from the Sweet Home plantation shows up. His presence makes her feel less lonely, but also brings back memories of when she was a slave.
Counting on the stillness of her own soul, she had forgotten the other one: the soul of her baby girl. Who would have thought that a little old baby could harbor so much rage? Rutting among the stones under the eyes of the engraver’s son was not enough.
Through flashbacks, the book explains the horrible things that happened to Sethe during slavery and how she escaped. It talks a lot about things like motherhood, trauma, and how hard it is to move on from the past. The story shows how love can be powerful but also painful, especially when tied to such a terrible history.