The Repercussions Of Trauma In Beloved

The Repercussions of Trauma in Beloved In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, a traumatic past presents itself in the physical form of the character Beloved. She is the manifestation of Sethe’s agonizing history, a painful reminder that Sethe’s past still haunts her. Beloved represents the trauma that all freed slaves experience – an inescapable reminder there to disrupt their present lives. Morrison’s novel reminds us that, to the victims of trauma, their past haunts their present and dampens their future. Repeatedly, the characters seen in Beloved show a deep repression of their history, creating a conflict between their traumatic past and their current lives. The repression of trauma amplifies its effects, and critically alters the mental state of those who experience it. This altered mindset can lead to a shattered identity and intensify the continued aftermath of trauma, eventually transcending generations.

The mental state of trauma victims is only worsened by the repression of those distressing memories. Without facing the past or finding a way to move on, victims can find themselves with a weakened mental stability. One of Paul D’s most touching quotes, “’…me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.’” (Morrison 322), portrays the idea that you must be able to see yourself in the future and plan for a life beyond your trauma in order to begin healing from it. Repressing traumatic memories only allows them to haunt you with twice as much force as before. It was the repression and the banishment of Sethe’s past that allowed Beloved to manifest in a physical form, eventually giving her the ability to take away from Sethe’s life. Paul D similarly repressed his memories, in his, “tobacco tin” (Morrison 86) that he calls his heart. The difference is his resiliency to the effects of trauma, making him a strong moral center for the novel, eventually allowing him to help Sethe move on from her own history. Sethe’s repression of her memories is what made her specifically susceptible to the effects of trauma, and the idea of a future without that trauma is what helped her move on. Transgenerational trauma affects the present lives of those who may not have experienced the same trauma in the past. The actions and words of victims of trauma influence those around them, particularly those in younger generations.

This effect is showcased in Beloved through the relationship of Sethe and Denver, especially pronounced because of the mother-daughter connection. “But Denver was shaking now and sobbing… ‘Nobody speaks to us. Nobody comes by. Boys don’t like me. Girls don’t either,’” (Morrison 17). Evident in this quote, Denver is experiencing the same emotional turmoil that Sethe experienced when she was shunned by their community, only Denver has the opportunity to connect with the community, and chooses not to. When Sethe killed Beloved all those years ago, she inadvertently set herself and her daughter on a path of separation from the community, even though Denver herself didn’t commit the act. An additional symptom of trauma that affects both Sethe and Denver is an overwhelming feeling of a shortened future. Sethe makes no plans for her future because she can’t let go of her past, therefore Denver makes no plans for her future because she also clings to Sethe’s past, hurting her without her realizing. The longer symptoms of trauma such as these go untreated and unrecognized, the more profound their effect will be on later generations. The complete loss or diminishing of identity in trauma victims ultimately leads to a lost sense of purpose.

Identity is the way someone defines themselves, and it’s what they center their future around. When Beloved came back in a physical form, Sethe’s purpose shifted to pure motherhood on behalf of Beloved, and eventually began to degrade her sense of self. “The bigger Beloved got, the smaller Sethe became…” (Morrison 294). The guilt around Sethe’s past began to consume her life, and started to take over her present life. Even before Beloved returned, Sethe misplaced her purpose and threw her life into the lives of her children, instead of focusing on a potential future for herself. Trauma impacts every aspect of the victim’s life, especially in a case such as Sethe’s, where her children, particularly Beloved, became her life so substantially that it consumed her.

Identifying trauma victims as a group somewhat furthers this loss of personal identity, but it’s equally important to recognize the history behind these mass travesties as it is to recognize these victims as individuals with personal histories. Sethe needed to find her own identity separate from her trauma, to find who she was without it while still acknowledging that part of her history, just as our society needs to recognize our history while finding an identity without the worse parts of it. Generations later, the suffering invoked by slavery still haunts us, and the aftermath is tangibly present in our society today. The transgenerational trauma that so deeply affects the African American community is a trauma that has been passed down for decades, whether the connection to slavery is clear to us or not. Our fixation on our past can either lead us to ignore our current societal problems, or lead us to making amends in any way that we can. Without the knowledge that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation, we may never realize that today’s refugees and immigrants escaping terrible situations may eventually experience those same symptoms. Evident in the quote, “Now she is running into the faces of the people out there, joining them and leaving Beloved behind,” (Morrison 309), the only way to move on from major historical tragedies, like slavery, is to move on as a community.

If Beloved is the metaphorical representation of our past come to haunt us, then we must leave Beloved behind as Sethe did – while still recognizing our past – in order to create a better future for our society. “Where there is no grave, one cannot mourn properly…” (Schwab 3). Without a single event in a long line of tragedies to mourn for, or a single person out of an entire broken family to grieve for, the mass community of freed slaves could not move on from their trauma without the help they did not receive. There was no safe place for these traumatized people to grieve and move on together. Sethe’s inability to gririeve her past because of her repression of that same past is what prevented her from having a future. A loss of identity due to this persistent sense of hopelessness is what allows trauma to continue to seep into every aspect of victims’ lives. Our current society is still deeply plagued by the aftermath of slavery, but with continued community efforts, our future doesn’t have to be dampened by that same trauma.