Take This to Your Grave

The last chapter of Morrison’s Beloved is one of the most intriguing and puzzling chapters in the novel. With the repetition of, “It was not a story to pass on” (275), this chapter belabors the point that the character and memory was forgotten and the story itself is not something one should try to convey to others. But, interestingly enough, the last word of the novel is, “Beloved” (275), which brings back what was forgotten. Within that name, and also the title of the novel itself, resides the story of Beloved and the memories of slavery and oppression that many people want to forget. This novel is extremely focused on the characters' preoccupation with forgetting in order to protect themselves from painful memories. Just like the character of Baby Suggs, who only allowed herself to remember that one of her children liked burned bread, and Paul D who keeps his heart locked in a metaphorical “tobacco tin” (117), the characters keep their memories and their emotions bottled up in order to attempt to forget the past. Beloved is someone who asks too many questions and pushes people to remembering the things they want to forget. For example. by asking Paul D to call her by her name, Beloved makes his “tobacco tin” heart open and transform into a, “red heart” (117). So, even though this a story that should not be passed on, by ending the novel with the word, “Beloved,” readers are confronted with the fact that those memories will always exist, though they may not be in the front of our minds. Just like the word, “Beloved,” is carved onto the gravestone that is spoken of in the beginning of the novel, the memories and associations that accompany the identity of, “Beloved,” may be laid to rest, but they are still set in stone, never to be completely destroyed. They can be brought to mind, just as a gravestone may be visited, but they can never be entirely obliterated.