Pulling It Together: Human Resilience and Community in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is the story of the sufferings of Afro-American’s slavery, trauma of being forced to leave their homelands, horrors of parting with their relatives and the resilience of the Black Community to restore peace and harmony among themselves. The present paper demonstrates the extent to which individuals need the support of their communities in order to survive and how the community as a whole rises resiliently to overcome the trauma and pacify the sufferings of individuals. Morrison in this novel, benevolently asserts the need of community, its solidarity and its interdependence in offering resistance and kindling the spirit of resilience for the individual redemption by knitting a diverse and fragmented narrative only to be exorcised for a better future.