Color as a Symbol and Symbolism in Toni Morrisons Beloved Essay

Use of Color as a Symbol in Beloved In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays the barbarity and cruelty of slavery. She emphasizes the African Americans trust for a new bearing as they try to escape their past while claiming their freedom and creating a common sense of corporation. In Beloved, Much of the characters pain occurs as they reconstruct themselves, their families, and their communities after the end of slavery (Kubitschek 115). Throughout the novel, Morrison uses trick to symbolically represent a life sentence complete with happiness, freedom, and safety, as well as involvement in community and family. In gayy scenes, Morrison uses color to convey a characters desire for such(prenominal) a life while, in other instances, Morrison utilizes color to illustrate the gladness and fulfillment, which the characters experience once they achieve this life. Morrison uses color to symbolize the life capital of Minnesota D desires as he is heading North. When capital of Minneso ta D asks the Cherokee man how he might get North. Free North. Magical North, (Morrison 112) he conveys his desire for a free, safe, happy and even somewhat magical life. Equating color with this life, the Cherokee man replies, Follow the tree flowers. When one thinks about or describes flowers, their colourize are always important. In his journey North, Paul D would study the horizon for a flash of pink or white...or blossoming plums (Morrison 113). By having Paul D search for colorful flowers, Morrison illustrates Paul Ds desire for a life full of safety, enjoyment, and freedom. Just as Paul D desires a better life after slavery, so does bollix Suggs. As a slave, Suggs was suppressed and did not experience the type of life she desired. Morrison indirectly demonstrates... ...e beauty of this land that was not theirs (Morrison 268). They cling to its banks to lap water and tried not to love it for, their life was not their ingest (Morrison 268). Thus, when the slaves are abl e to experience color, like Denver when she is a part of the community, the symbol of color is very powerful. It symbolizes a characters ability to own a feeling or emotion. For example, when Sugars dies, she concentrates on color because that is one function in her life which she owns. The effects of slavery have destroyed her family, community and even freedom. Therefore, she focuses on color because it is her own experience and the happiness she feels from reflective color is her own. Works Cited Kubitschek, M.D. Toni Morrison A Critical Companion. London Greenwood Press,1998. Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York plume Printing, 1987.