Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved covers many different scenes and spans many different places and time periods. This differentiation makes the novel diverse and eclectic and keeps the reader’s mind busy focusing on multiple scenarios. I believe a pivotal passage that would change the path of the whole novel if it had not happened is when Baby Suggs gets her freedom and moves to Cincinnati and (with help from the Bodwin siblings) begins work repairing shoes and taking in laundry in her very own house. Many events in the work follow Baby Suggs’ freedom, such as Garner’ death and the subsequent worsening of conditions at Sweet Home, and it is because Baby Suggs is free and has a house that Sethe can envision a place for her family to live together in freedom when she and the Sweet Home boys are thinking about escaping. Eliminating this passage would raise questions about the fate of many of the book’s characters, but most importantly we wonder, would Baby Suggs be free? If yes, would she move to Cincinnati? This scene and its effects are important in the novel, and many events following Baby Suggs’ freedom and her move to Cincinnati are relying on this particular scene.
The scene when Baby Suggs gets her freedom, drives to Cincinnati with Garner and buys a house is a brief and exciting one and can be noticed from the reading and has a lot of themes from the novel. Like many scenes from the novel this one was not clearly told, and many Beloved scenes require special attention to conclude what really happened and how it relates to the rest of the scenes. Making this kind of connection between passages necessitates a talent of creativity, originality and inventiveness.
Halle has worked so hard and has put extra effort by working the week-ends to buy his mother’s freedom. In return, Baby Suggs wishes he and the rest of her family can be free and all together- using Baby Suggs’ voice Morrison mentions that “At the back of Baby Suggs’ mind may have been the thought that if Halle made it, God do what He would, it would be a cause for celebration. If only this final son could do for himself what he had done for her and for the three children John and Ella delivered to her door one summer night.” (Morrison, 159) Baby Suggs is so grateful and thankful to her son Halle and wishes the best life for her son because of what he did for her. From this quote it is obvious that Baby Suggs’ gratefulness to her son Halle is because of the freedom he gave to her. At this point I thought about a related pivotal scene that is pretty similar and so close to Baby Suggs’ freedom. What if Halle didn’t work hard to make enough money for his mother’s freedom? What if he couldn’t afford for her freedom? Answering these questions implies a major path change of the novel and many scenes would have been eliminated if Halle hadn’t have worked on his mother’s freedom.
Baby suggs crosses to Cincinnati with Mr Garner. The author describes the scene when they have gotten to the river and says ‘This is a city of water,” said Mr. Garner. “Everything travels by water and what the rivers can’t carry the canals take. A queen of a city, Jenny. Everything you ever dreamed of, they make it right here. Iron stoves, buttons, ships, shirts, hairbrushes, paint, steam engines, books. A sewer system make your eyes bug out. Oh, this is a city, all right. If you have to live in a city–this is it.’ (Morrison, 168) Mr Garner mentions the water which represents life and freedom. He describes to Baby Suggs the importance of what she is about to experience. She experiences and tastes the freedom for the first time. Morrison also mentions “And when she stepped foot on free ground she could not believe that Halle knew what she didn’t; that Halle, who had never drawn one free breath, knew that there was nothing like it in this world. It scared her. Something’s the matter. What’s the matter? What’s the matter? she asked herself. She didn’t know what she looked like and was not curious. But suddenly she saw her hands and thought with a clarity as simple as it was dazzling, “These hands belong to me. These my hands.” Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered something else new: her own heartbeat. Had it been there all along? This pounding thing? She felt like a fool and began to laugh out loud.” (Morrison, 166) the author describes the Baby Suggs impression and her remembrance of her son Halle who was part to get her freedom. Baby Suggs at this point realizes that she is free and she owns her body, her hands and her emotions. She was happy and full of joy. She had thoughts about the rest of her family and wishes one day everyone would have a taste of freedom.
When Baby Suggs gets her freedom and moved to Cincinnati, she works as a cobbler and takes in laundry. Baby Suggs’ moving triggered many scenes and provoked an intention to others to escape and move to Cincinnati where she had her own house. Sethe and Halle eventually had two sons and a daughter. Garner, the husband slave owner, dies, and his brother, a schoolteacher, comes to run the plantation. Garner’s brother is extremely cruel. He brings two young white boys with him. One day when Sethe was walking outside the room where the schoolteacher teaches the young boys and they take measurements of her body- she discovers they are measuring her like she is an animal and is upset that they do not see her as a human. Sethe is pregnant with another daughter when she decides to run away from the plantation and escape for freedom with her husband, the three kids, and her husband’s three brothers. This scene is highly related to Baby Suggs moving to Cincinnati and this is how Sethe had the idea and the consideration to escape from Kentucky and head to Ohio to 124 house.
When Sethe has the chance she sends the kids in a wagon to Baby Suggs’ house first- and here the schoolteacher discovers the plan to escape. The adults are all horribly punished for trying to run away, but Sethe never gives up trying to escape with her kids. She succeeds- though the children arrived before Sethe and her new baby. When the kids arrive to Cincinnati Baby Suggs has a complex feeling which is a mixture of happiness and sadness, the author describes her feeling by saying that “When the children arrived and no Sethe, she was afraid and grateful.” (Morrison, 159) Baby Suggs was happy for the kids but so afraid to not have Sethe with her and the kids.
In the novel Sethe’s freedom follows Baby Suggs’ freedom. Suppose Baby Suggs’s never moved and never felt the unexpected job of being free. Perhaps Sethe would not be motivated to escape and not necessarily get her freedom and move to Cincinnati to join Baby Suggs. Even if she did, it there would be much more of a challenge in making a home in a free without Baby Suggs help and without offering her house as a home and refuge.
Finally, the scene of Baby Suggs freedom and her move to Cincinnati is a very important step in the novel and it is a crucial event in the story. If the scene had never happened, a major change would be imposed to the following scenes. The pattern of the events might have happened but the novel would serve a different meaning than the actual one. For example, if Sethe had settled her family in a city that was farther away from Kentucky than Cincinnati, the schoolteacher and slave catcher might not have been able to find them and Sethe might not have been driven to kill her own baby. Not being able to follow Baby Suggs’s freedom and her move to Cincinnati might not have prevented Sethe and her kids from gaining freedom. But I would suggest that it would’ve been done in a different manner and the course of events would be other than what was mentioned in the novel.
