Mythical Analysis of the Book, Including Whether

¶ … mythical analysis of the book, including whether the mythical content of the book is a "good myth" that prepares the reader to deal with real world problems and issues. "Beloved" is a magical, disturbing, and classic work that won a Pulitzer Prize for literature. Reading the book is like reading an old myth, because the story itself is larger than life, and the lessons are larger than life, too. The book teaches the reader about slavery, even if they think they know about it already. It shows the lasting affects slavery had on those who served as slaves, and how it changed people's lives, their outlook, and their very souls. It is a haunting book because it stays in the mind long after the reader has finished turning the pages. Thus, the book helps teach something incredibly important to readers by the use of myth and mythical situations.

What is myth? Author David Adams Leeming writes, "The English word 'myth' is derived from the Greek mythos, meaning word or story. Human beings have traditionally used stories to describe or explain things they could not explain otherwise" (Leeming 3). This definition helps explain the mythical elements of the novel "Beloved." The book describes events and lives that simply could not have been explained any other way for the reader and the characters to understand, and that is why this book portrays a "good myth." It teaches the reader more about black history, slavery, and the desperation slaves felt as they served unrelenting masters in the South.

The character "Beloved" helps continue the mythical theme in this book. She is real; but the family believes she is the reincarnated ghost of the baby her mother Sethe killed years before. Sethe tried to kill her children rather than see them returned to slavery after their discovery in the North. This is the central theme the book revolves around, and the core of the myth that surrounds the book. Beloved is a myth, a "woman-child" who is the same age the baby would have been had she lived, but she is still a "baby" until Sethe teaches her how to be an adult. The entire idea of the book seems mythical and magical somehow, like something that could have happened, but did not. It is larger than life and tells a larger than life story, and that is another commonality with the definition of myth.

The book shows how slavery affected Sethe and her family. She was so incredibly desperate for her children not to know a life of slavery that she would rather kill them than have them return to the South and slavery. This is a powerful lesson and a powerful statement. The entire situation is presented as a myth, but it certainly must have happened in free slave families facing returning to a life of slavery. Anything seemed better than that way of life, even death. In this way, the myth of the story holds true to the definition. The pain of slavery is presented as a myth because it is otherwise inexplicable.

Myths also usually contain heroic figures, and Sethe is certainly a heroic figure, even if she did murder her child. Joseph Campbell eloquently believed in the importance of the hero in myth. Leeming continues, "Whether the hero of a myth is Indian, Norse, African, or Polynesian, whether he or she is on a quest for nirvana, self, the Kingdom of God, or the Golden Fleece, this figure is on a universal human quest for identity and individuation" (Leeming 6). Sethe is certainly on a quest when she manages to escape to the North and have her child on the way. She lives through a return to slavery and manages to return to a free life with her children. She creates children, like Denver and Beloved who are larger than life. Her own story is larger than life. It is tragic, and it is sad, and it is full of violence, but it is still a heroic life, and she is consistently on a quest for her own identity, which she has lost through the trials of slavery. That is why Paul D. cannot get Sethe out of his mind, and why he returns to her in the end. However, she does not recognize her own strength, and that is the mark of a true hero, too. Paul D. has to tell her, "You your best thing, Sethe. You are'" (Morrison 273), because she does see herself as good or heroic. She may be an unlikely hero, but her story is meaningful and teaches others about the horrors and the brutality of slavery.

There is another very important lesson this story teaches the reader and that makes it a good myth. Throughout the story, Sethe is mired in her past. She cannot forget her life as a slave, and she cannot forgive herself for murdering her daughter, no matter her intentions. This causes her to live in the past, rather than in the present and the future. Morrison writes, "But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day. Exactly like that afternoon in the wild onions -- where one more step was the most she could see of the future" (Morrison 70). Poor Sethe has suffered so much that she can only relive her suffering, rather than see a better future, and this is another mark of myth, which is always set in the past. The mythical figures usually learn from their mistakes so they can teach others. Sethe's experiences teach others about the horrors of slavery, and so, this novel teaches and uses myth to teach.