“If I hadn’t killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her.” – Beloved, 1987
I first fell in love with Toni Morrison’s voice when I read Beloved during one of my many English courses at Spelman College. The novel was heavy, to say the least. It took place in the 1870s and follows Sethe; a former slave that escaped to Ohio. Beloved follows Sethe’s new life as she is constantly haunted by her past. The novel flips between the present day and the past, and it takes a keen reader to figure out Morrison’s storytelling technique and to follow along. Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988, and was adapted to a screenplay ten years later starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, and Thandie Newton. I have been enjoying my summer (which is why I have been posting less) but I couldn’t let any more time go by without acknowledging one of the greatest literary minds of our time. Rest Well and keep telling those stories in heaven Toni.