Teaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved : From Genesis to the Reckoning

Abstract: This comparative essay outlines one strategy for teaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved through a biblical lens, in order to encourage students with strong Christian backgrounds to read works that challenge some of their assumptions. I argue that in Beloved , Morrison uses Genesis 1–4 as the structure for her novel, offering a bridge to students who are comfortable reading the Bible as a way into a difficult work. I argue that the Garner’s Sweet Home resonates with Genesis 1 and 2, that Schoolteacher’s Sweet Home evokes Genesis 3, and that Morrison’s masterstroke in the novel is her ruminations on Genesis 4, including the death of the child, Beloved, which explains the protagonist, Sethe’s, name. Moreover, the better we understand those biblical chapters, the closer we get not only to interpreting Morrison’s novel, which is about understanding complicity and rebuilding community, but the closer we are, as educators, to living the mantra of Morrison’s message about communal understanding.