Powerful Shifts in Perspective
In 1993 Tony Morrison won the Nobel Prize in literature for writing Beloved . The book itself is a powerfully haunting story which tackles questions of love, slavery, and memory. Part of what makes it such an important novel is the way the story is pieced together. A central part of the book is perspective and the changes in perspective. Morrison puts readers in a completely unfamiliar situation, using point of view to guide them. This is one of the most important tools to understand Beloved . Most of the switches in perspective remain within Sethe's family or loved ones. We get brief backstories of characters like Paul D or Stamp Paid, but these shifts always seem natural and necessary. No amount of changes prepares the reader for the perspective shift in the most difficult chapter of the novel. For almost 200 pages, the narrative has been circling around the central event in the book without ever explicitly describing it. We get to know Sethe an...