Margaret Garner

As we were reading Beloved, I felt like I had heard this story before. So I looked around and came across the story of Margaret Garner, the woman whom Morrison based her novel off of. Margaret Garner was born as a slave during the pre-Civil War era in Kentucky. Like Sethe, she was able to marry a fellow slave, but also had children by her white master. Eventually, she, her husband, and their four children escaped with other slave families across the frozen Ohio river into Cincinnati  She and her family stayed with an uncle there while many of the other slaves escaped to Canada. Soon slave catchers came and surrounded the house where Garner and her family were staying. Her husband attempted to shoot the slave catchers and Margaret killed her two-year-old daughter with a butcher knife. She was stopped before she could kill her other children and herself. Similar to Sethe, Margaret also did not want her children enslaved. However, one interesting difference is that in Beloved, we don't really get the sense that Sethe was trying to kill herself--she is focused only on preventing her children from become slaves.

 So far, Sethe's and Margaret's stories are quite similar. However, their lives diverge as they are jailed. In Beloved, we are not really told about what happens to Sethe when she is jailed. In Margaret Garner's case, she presents one of the most complicated runaway slave cases that the courts had ever dealt with. The main problem was deciding whether to try Garner as property under the Fugitive Slave Law, or to treat her as a person and try her for murder, in the interest of protecting the people of Ohio.It was essentially whether federal or state law should take precedence. In the end she was tried under the Fugitive Slave Law and forced to return to Kentucky. Ohio officials tried to track her down to try her for murder, but her master continually moved them around. She eventually died of typhoid fever in 1958.

Sethe's story in some way's seem a lot happier than the life of Margaret Garner. Perhaps Morrison chose to have Sethe become free so that she could explore the theme of the past always coming back. Also, Morrison probably chose not to discuss Sethe's imprisonment because it is not too relevant to the overall themes of the novel. Additionally Sethe's story is a lot richer because we are able to see the thoughts of her and those around her.

Power of the Past

In Beloved, Toni Morrison gives us bits and fragments of the past for us to piece together as the story progresses. However, even without the complete picture, we can still see how the past has a large effect on the present. When Sethe and Denver lived alone in 124 with the baby ghost, Sethe was always trying to repress her memories of her past and life at Sweet Home. She would never fully answer Denver's questions about the past. Despite her efforts, I think Sethe realizes she can't hide from past indefinitely:

"I mean, even if I don't think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened...The picture is still there and what's more, if you go there--you who never was there--if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you waiting for you...That's how come I had to get all my children out. No matter what."

Sethe doesn't want to tell Denver about what happened to her because she fears it might happen to Denver. She realizes the power of the past to repeat itself. But once Paul D and Beloved (who could both be considered figures of Sethe's past) come, Sethe seems to become more accepting of her past. We begin to hear (slowly) more about Sethe and her past as she talks to Paul D and mysteriously connects with Beloved.

With Paul D's arrival, they are able to become more comfortable, almost a family. Perhaps this is because Paul D brings back pleasant memories. With Beloved, the almost idyllic life is interrupted. Although at first she seems innocent, the incident with her choking Sethe is much more sinister. Maybe her appearance evokes only painful memories of the death of Sethe's baby--this painful past only has negative effects on the present.

While we may only be able to speculate now, once we get a more detailed picture of Sethe's past, I am sure we will be able to more clearly tell how the past has power over the present.