question about the book it concludes: how does this novel tell differently? Writing in order to "rip [the] veil" off of the slave narrative, Morrison explores interior life, probing psychic wounds and depths that were passed over by antebellum discourse. But her writing is as much about withholding as unveiling. She confronts readers with their will to possess or master her characters through the acquisition of intimate knowledge. Beloved repeatedly underscores slavery's silences by replaying them, calling attention to what has not been said and what, in the world of this novel, cannot be said-to "unspeakable thoughts, unspoken."
             Because Beloved is about the meaning of historical events that exists beyond mere facts, its language is often dense and highly symbolic. Almost all of the major symbols in Beloved represent some aspect of its major themes of identification and relationship in the contexts of slavery and racist oppression. Beloved's characters are preoccupied with the question of what defines a human being. Particularly, their memories replay over and over again the violent ways in which white definitions of "humanity" are not permitted for blacks and then used against them to label them as animals. "Humans" exercise their ability to establish and maintain proper gender, family relationships, and stable identities. In contrast, slaves are created through the violent termination of family ties, the exploitation of sexuality for profit, and the naming of people as property. Such a system creates the kind of human paradox, in which blacks are given "unspeakable" choices to make, but the consequences must remain "unspoken" in order for them to survive. Beloved uses repeating symbols to connect the memories of one character to those of another, interweaving "unspeakable" memory that connects the fabric of historical experience. For example, the novels dedication goes out t...