Analysis of The Protagonist of Toni Morrison's 'Beloved'.

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ABSTRACT

Beloved adalah sebuah novel karya terbaik Toni Morrison. Novel ini ditulis untuk mengenang Margaret Garner, seorang budak wanita dan seorang ibu yang membunuh anak perempuannya agar tidak menjadi budak seperti dirinya. Tokoh utama dalam novel ini adalah Sethe yang membunuh anak perempuan pertamanya supaya majikannya tidak bisa menjadikan anaknya seorang budak.

Dalam novelnya Morrison menekankan tentang dampak buruk perbudakan pada orang kulit hitam, terutama budak wanita. Novel ini menarik untuk didiskusikan karena menceritakan tentang perjuangan Sethe dan usahanya untuk menghilangkan traumanya di masa lalu selama perbudakan, dan juga tentang figur seorang ibu yang ingin memiliki anaknya secara utuh dan melindungi mereka.

Sethe digambarkan sebagai seseorang yang ingin memiliki sesuatu atau seseorang hanya untuk dirinya sendiri, seorang ibu yang terlalu melindungi anak-anaknya, yang mempunyai keberanian dalam menghadapi situasi yang sulit, dan mempunyai sikap menghargai orang lain. Penggambaran tokoh utama ini sangat menunjang tujuan pengarang.

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APPENDICES

SYNOPSIS OF BELOVED

In 1848, Sethe, who is a woman slave, lives in Mr. Garner’s Sweet Home

plantation. One year later Sethe marries Halle, a man slave. They have two sons and a daughter. When Mr. Garner dies, his wife asks a schoolteacher, who is her brother-in-law, to manage Sweet Home. Seeing that the schoolteacher abuses the slaves, Sethe, who is pregnant of her fourth children, plans to run away from the plantation with her children. Twenty-eight days later, the schoolteacher finds them in 124, which is Sethe’s mother in-law’s house. Sethe kills her first daughter because she does not want her daughter to return to slavery. Then, she is sent to jail.

When she is freed from jail, she comes back to 124 and makes a tombstone for her killed-baby, named Beloved. In 1873, two people arrive at 124. The first is Paul D, an ex-slave. The second is a strange girl named Beloved. One day, Paul D leaves 124 after he reads the clipping of Sethe’s murdering her first daughter.

Then, considering Beloved to be her reincarnated daughter, Sethe thinks that she gets a second chance to take care of Beloved.

Later, Beloved dominates Sethe with her anger because of Sethe’s

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22 Maranatha Christian University Bodwin, the landlord of 124. However, Sethe thinks that Mr. Bodwin is the schoolteacher, so she wants to kill him. And Beloved, thinking that the landlord is the white man who comes to recapture her, runs away from 124. Knowing about Sethe’s problem, Paul D returns to 124. When Beloved disappears, Sethe, Denver,

and Paul D leave 124 and start a new life in another place.

BIOGRAPHY OF TONI MORRISON

Toni Morrison was born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on February 18, 1931. Her family moved to the Midwest because her parents (George and Ramah Wills Wofford) hoped that their children can grow up in a more friendly environment which will keep them away from racial discrimination.

Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 and got master’s

degree in English from Cornell University in 1955. Then, she worked as an English instructor at Texas Southern. In 1957, she returned to Howard University to teach English. She is the first Afro-American female writer to hold a named chair at a university in the Ivy League.

Morrison’s first work, The Bluest Eye (1969), is about the life of Pecola, a

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The next year she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Another work is Jazz (1992), the setting of which takes place in Harlem, in 1920s.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Toni Morrison is a twentieth century American black writer who gives a big contribution to the literary world because she “… has often been regarded as the premier promoter of African American Literature” (Dan). In her essay entitled “Toni Morrison” Holly Hedge says, “With seven extraordinary novels and four

major literary awards, including the 1988 Pulitzer Prize and the 1993 Nobel Prize under her belt, Toni Morrison is in the midst of a more than fulfilling career as a master novelist” (Hedge).

Beloved, which was published in 1987, is “… considered Morrison's masterpiece” (“Toni Morrison Biography”) and “[i]n 1988 it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction” (Bois). In Beloved, Morrison “… writes about the cruelty of slavery and the strong will her characters must possess in order to escape from it”

(Shay). The novel mainly tells about dehumanization, such as sexual abuse and violence towards black people and the effect of the slavery, which influences slaves’ life although they become free. The novel itself is “[i]nspired by the story

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fugitive slave from Kentucky, [who] killed one of her children rather than permit her to be returned to slavery” (Coffin).

Knowing that the focus of the novel, Beloved, is on the effect of slavery, I will analyse the protagonist, Sethe, who is a slave character in the novel. Protagonist is “[t]he main character in a drama or other literary work”

(“Protagonist”). In spite of the title of the novel that refers to another character in

the novel, Beloved, I am of the opinion that the story itself centres around the mother figure of Sethe, her past, her struggle, and eventually her effort to cope with her traumatic past. The protagonist will be analysed by using formalism.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problems are stated as follows:

1. How does Toni Morrison portray the protagonist of Beloved? 2. What is the author’s purpose of creating such a protagonist?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Based on the statements of the problem above, this study is done:

1. To show how Toni Morrison portrays the protagonist of Beloved. 2. To show the author’s purpose of creating such a protagonist.

METHOD OF RESEARCH

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3 Maranatha Christian University protagonist of Beloved, Sethe. I also read some texts taken from the Internet. The texts are compiled to relate to the analysis of the protagonist.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

This thesis consists of three chapters, preceded by the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the Analysis of the Protagonist of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The last chapter, Chapter Three, is the Conclusion. The

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analysed the protagonist of Toni Morrison’s Beloved in the

previous chapter, I come to some conclusions. Sethe, the protagonist, has four characteristics: she is characterized as a possessive woman, an over-protective mother, a courageous woman, and also a woman who respects others. Two of them, which are a possessive woman and an over-protective mother, are the prominent characteristics of her; accordingly, the characteristics are particularly discussed. The rest of them are the supporting characteristics of her.

According to her conversation with Paul D and her reaction to others, Sethe’s characteristics are obvious to understand. Besides, Paul D is an ex-slave

man who is also a man slave in Sweet Home, where she lives, Beloved is a girl who reminds her of her killed daughter, and Denver reminds her of her struggle to escape from Sweet Home. The three of them represent her past life in slavery. Consequently, she always remembers her past and she has to struggle hard to forget it. She is obsessed by her past life very much.

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17 Maranatha Christian University can survive for her life to be a free woman. As a lifelike character, Sethe has two kinds of characteristics, negative and positive characteristics, because Morrison wants to show Sethe’s being humane. Accordingly, I can conclude that Sethe is

still a human being wherever she is.

In portraying the protagonist in her novel, Morrison is inspired by Margaret Garner, a mother who prefers killing her daughter to returning her to slavery. No wonder she succeeds in portraying the protagonist clearly for Sethe represents a black mother who wants to protect her children from slavery. I can conclude that Morrison writes the issue in her novel so that people can realize of the effect of slavery and the struggle of a woman who lives in slavery.

From analysing this novel, I can learn that slavery gives bad impact to black people because they become traumatic of it. Furthermore, the blacks do not want to speak up about the issue of slavery, and the whites do not want to be blamed for it; consequently, it becomes a long-lasting unfinished issue for white and black people in the USA.

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I do agree with Toni Morrison that black people are also human beings who have equal rights with white people as we all believe that all men are created equal. They have their rights to have freedom, to be fairly treated, and have equal right to vote and in friendship.

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19 Maranatha Christian University

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text:

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Penguin Group, 1987

Internet Sources:

”Beloved (Author Biography)”. WikiAnswers Q&A community. 2006. Answers Corporation. 20 February 2008 <http://www.answers.com/topic/beloved-novel-1>

Bois, Danuta. “Toni Morrison”. 1996. Distinguished Women of Past and Present. 18 February 2008

<http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html>

Coffin, Levi. “Margaret Garner”. aalbc.com. 2007. AALBC.com, LLC. 5 March

2008 <http://aalbc.com/authors/margaret.htm >

Dan, Rashel. “An Introduction to the African American Writer Toni Morrison”. 16 Mar 2007. Ambiguity. 2008. Content, Inc. 23 February 2008

<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/168434/an_introduction_to_the_ african_american.html>

“Protagonist”. Dictionary.com. 2008. Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 25 February 2008 <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=protagonist>

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Shay, Courtney. “Analysis of the works of Toni Morrison and Sembene Ousmane”. Helium. 2008. Helium, Inc. 18 February 2008

<http://www.helium.com/tm/166965/glance-morrison-sembene-ousmane>

“Toni Morrison Biography”. Notable Biographies. 2007. Advameg Inc. 23 February 2008. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Morrison-Toni.html >

“Toni Morrison Criticism and Essays”. e.note.com. 2008. eNotes.com, Inc. 23 February 2008