Utjecaj ropstva na ženske odnose u Toni Morrisonovom romanu Beloved

This paper focuses on Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, in which Morrison presents how slavery greatly influenced the forming of relationships between the characters, especially the female characters in the novel. Morrison reconceptualizes American history in such a way, that she tells the story from a slave’s point of view, not of the white social classes. She also presents her view on female agency in the novel. Through her main character Sethe, she shows deep insight into a slave’s psychological and physical state, and how it is a struggle to maintain or build a healthy relationship with loved ones. Sethe must overcome her past trauma so she could live a normal life. The aim of this paper is to present the consequences of slavery on the relationships between female characters in the novel, more specifically, the relationship between the main character Sethe and her daughter Denver, between Sethe and the ghost girl Beloved, and between Sethe and her lover Paul D. In order to examine the whites’ treatment of slaves, the paper also explores the beginnings of exploitation of African Americans in the United States, especially in the South, where Catholic slave owners justified their actions through the Bible