Beloved is a novel set in Ohio several years after the Civil War. The book focuses on characters that struggle fruitlessly to keep their painful recollections of the past at bay. The whole story revolves around issues of race, gender, the black community, and the supernatural. The focus of this paper is going to be on how these things were affected by the emancipation of the slaves and the reconstruction period, the time in which the story is placed.
             The story concentrates on events arising from the Fugitive Slave Act, it describes the unspeakable consequences of an escape from slavery for Sethe, her children and Paul D. The story line begins many years after Sethe's break for freedom, and it gradually persuades the reader to accept the haunting of 124 Bluestone Road by a two year old child, killed by her mother Sethe: "Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children...by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims" (Page 1).
             The novel is divided into three parts. The parts open with statements as to indicate the progress of the haunting, from the ghost to the materialized spirit to the final freeing of both the spirit and Sethe: Part I: "124 WAS SPITEFUL" (Page 1); Part II: "124 WAS LOUD"(Page 169); Part III: "124 WAS QUIET" (Page 239). These parts reflect the progressive reconciliation of a betrayed child and her desperate mother. Overall symbolizing the gradual acceptance of freedom and the enormous work and continuous struggle that would last for the next 100 years.
             The dynamics of the story attempt to distance the reader from direct exposure to the extremes of the real horror contained in the storyline. The novel moves around from place to place, from the past to the present. This style of writing is necessary to understand the psychological and emotional state of the characters. Reading this story is a lot like he...