Beloved: A Queer Gaze into the American Classic

I am going to look at Beloved through queer theory. Beloved is a novel that cannot be easily categorized. It has a variety of interpretations and lenses to peer through. Queer theory offers a critical perspective that helps challenges the normalizations of the world. I will demonstrate how Beloved shows the conventional narratives of slavery and freedom. In this paper, I will apply queer theoretical frameworks through Beloved to challenge conventional narratives of slavery and freedom, exploring themes of non-normative family structures, fluidity of gender and sexuality, rejection of heteronormativity, and intersections of trauma and identity. Through an analysis of the novel’s characters, relationships, and narrative strategies, I aim to show the nuances of how Beloved disrupts cultural norms and offers a complex portrayal of marginalized experiences in society.

Queer theory is used to look at non-normative family structures. A non-normative family structure is anything that is not a mom, a dad, and their biological kids. Beloved explores a non-normative structure through Sethe, the matriarch, her living daughter Denver, her ghost daughter Beloved, and Paul D. who periodically lives with the family at different points throughout the novel. Their unconventional family challenges the idea of a nuclear familiar unit for the time period and for our present time. Sethe reflects, “I can sleep like the drowned, have mercy. She come back to me, my daughter, and she is mine” (Morrison 241). This moment underscores the complexity of their family bonds as it blurs the boundaries of life and death. It challenges the conventional notions of motherhood and belonging. Sethe’s past has made her a pariah of the town and she and Denver often keep to themselves. For the time period of a close-knit community, this is vastly different. Even without Beloved or Paul D., their situation challenges the nuclear family structure by simply existing. “… letting them know she was different because she lived in a house with two stories; tougher, because she could do and survive things they believed she should neither do nor survive” (Morrison 56). This quote highlights Sethe and Denver’s isolation from the rest of the community. It reinforces the non-normative structure of their family as they go to the fair. They remain outsiders who challenge social norms in the context of historical trauma and oppression. As well as challenging the notions of normal, the family shows the fluidity of sexuality.

The fluidity of gender and sexuality are forefronted in queer theory. Themes in Beloved include delving into gender and sexuality through the fluidity of Beloved. Her existence blurs the boundaries of reality and fantasy, life and death, and most relevant to the theory, identity. The novel requests readers to question the fixed notions society has placed on gender and sexuality. This highlights the queer theory’s emphasis on fluidity and performativity. “I am always crouching  the man on my face is dead  his face is not mine  his mouth smells sweet but his eyes are locked” (Morrison 248) The haunting portrayal of identity and embodiment challenges conventional understandings of selfhood helping enforce the idea that identity is not fixed but instead rather fluid. Paul D. longed for Sethe for years and was almost disturbed by the aftermath of their first night together. He has grown to love her but his body wanders around at night and even sleeps with Beloved. Sexuality paired with the human mind is a constant change that never seems to be stagnant. “If he trembled like Lot’s wife and felt some womanish need to see the nature of the sin behind him; feel a sympathy, perhaps, for the cursing cursed, or want to hold it in his arms out of respect for the connection between them, he too would be lost” (Morrison 117). This passage shows his complex desires of sexuality. He struggles to reconcile his love for Sethe with his past traumas and societal expectations as the novel explores the rejection of stagnancy and the rejection of heteronormativity.

Beloved explores the rejection of heteronormativity through its depiction of relationships and series of the characters. For example, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship is intense, emotional, and volatile. For starters, Beloved is dead and we are not entirely sure what type of being she is. The two develop an intense emotional attachment to one another that can be seen in an extremely sensual, almost erotic light. It challenges the heteronormative view of relationships and bonds between people. “I lost her again, but I found the house she whispered to me and there she was, smiling at last. It’s good, but I cannot lose her again” (Morrison 253). This quote is just one example of their intense co-dependency on one another as well as the intense desire they have for each other. Sethe and Paul D. while heterosexual reject the ideas of marriage and bonds. Due to slavery, Sethe was denied a big wedding, and many other slaves were denied marriage. Instead of following suit, the two decide to make their own relationship. They do not care about what others think. Sethe lets Paul D. wander the house at night because that is what works for them. It is a representation of love that people often do not get to witness in the media. “Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something” (Morrison 46). This internal monologue of questions captures Sethe’s yearning for emotional connection and stability with Paul D. despite the uncertainty a relationship with him could present. She desires reassurance in their relationship while they challenge the conventional notions of love at the time through their past traumas.

The queer theory examines the intersections of trauma, identity, and intersectionality in general. Beloved provides many instances for us to examine with this lens. The characters all grapple with the trauma of slavery and its endurance through generational trauma as well as the effects it has on their sense of self and relationships. Trauma disrupts the normal narratives of identity and belonging, aligning with queer theory’s focus on destabilizing the normal culture. “Beloved, she my daughter. She mine” (Morrison 237). In my interpretation of the text, I would argue Beloved is the embodiment, or personification, of the trauma Sethe, her mother, and Denver have all experienced. Denver is grappling with her identity of who she is while having to deal with generational trauma and the introduction of her increasingly chaotic sister. Beloved acts as a constant reminder of the past. She cripples Sethe with emotional turmoil, Paul D. runs away, and Denver picks up the pieces of the past. “Who would it be? Who could she stand in front of who wouldn’t shame her on learning that her mother sat around like a rag doll, broke down, finally, from trying to care of and make up for” (Morrison 286). Denver struggles with shame and self-perception as she is forced to navigate their collective trauma and family shame. It shows her resilience despite it all. Though she is nervous and self-conscious, she still goes out into the world.

In conclusion, through the use, queer theoretical frameworks Toni Morrison’s Beloved sheds light on the novel’s intricate use of trauma, desire, and resistance while challenging the heteronormative understandings of identity and familial structures. Through the exploration of nonnormative family structures, fluidity of gender and sexuality, rejection of heteronormativity, and intersections of trauma and identity, Beloved becomes a complex, multi-layered novel. In the end, Beloved is a powerful story set to disrupt the normal way of the world and its thinking in order to envision a more just and inclusive society. Morrison shows slavery and how its legacy affects the characters and future generations by inviting us to confront the past and look forward to a more inclusive future.