by Empress Djata

Created on: July 13, 2009   Last Updated: July 18, 2009

Locations in Gothic stories are grim dark descriptions of a locale where no one wants to go or be. Gloomy symbolisms are used to reflect sub-essences of a story, which the writer uses to bring to life certain issues. Although the Sweet Home men felt they took care of their Negroes properly, upon the death of one of the Sweet Home men, Paul D. Garner, a new arrival to the Sweet Home, quickly revealed himself as being one of the villains of the story. The man was only referred to as the schoolteacher.

In the book Beloved, the house of the former slave, Sethe, where she lived for the previous eighteen years upon her escape from capture, was haunted. The book describes three occupancies of the home at 124: Sethe, her youngest daughter Denver and the ghost of Sethe's deceased child. The house was spiteful and filled with venom from Sethe's child who died eighteen year's before, and was buried beneath a tombstone inscribe with a single word "BELOVED".

The spirit of Sethe's dead baby has embedded itself into the home. Sethe also had two sons who once lived at 124. However, both Buglar and Howard abandoned the home when they were thirteen. Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law, lived at the home as well until her death eight years before. Early in the book Denver's only company is the ghost. This was short-lived as Paul D. Garner scared it off.

Sethe's character is that of a beaten down ex-slave who carries both physical and mental scars from her years living as a slave. She is depicted in the book as having an unusually strong will, yet is continuously trying to flee the memories of her past, only to have it thrown back in her face by the arrival of Paul. But throughout she keeps a face of stillness. The ongoing supply of her milk, which she needed to feed her own child, made Sethe feel bitter and weak, in addition to being an object, but she still had a compassionate side.

The book brought out the tale of an African-American family's experiences during the era of slavery in the United States. This story was set to a Gothic milieu that allows the reader to feel the story in an unusually gloomy and supernatural manner, which continues the taste of loneliness from the different characters as the plot unfolded. Sethe and Paul have issues between them from the past that need resolution, and Denver's present is what needs resolution. Sethe and Paul's sexual history and time at Sweet Home cause them to flash back to those times. These flashes did not help the couple; they

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