History Literature / Beloved

* EvenEvilHasStandards: schoolteacher and his nephew are both genuinely horrified when they see what [[spoiler:Sethe did to her children, with schoolteacher even sheding a SingleTear at the scene.]]

* ChildByRape: Sethe's mother had several, all of which she "threw away". She kept only Sethe because Sethe's father was the one man she "put her arms around", which seems to be her way of saying she consented.

* {{Dedication}}: In the beginning of the novel, to "sixty million and more".

* OffingTheOffspring: Two-year-old Beloved is [[MercyKill Mercy Killed]] by her mother when slavers find them. Her siblings are meant to be next, but Sethe is stopped from carrying out the rest of the killings.

* PaterFamilicide: [[spoiler:When the schoolteacher arrived at 124, Sethe decided to kill her children and herself to save them from a life of slavery. She only injured her two sons, and was stopped just before she would have bashed Denver's brains against the shed wall, but she did succeed in killing her third child.]]

* SympatheticMurderer: Sethe killed Beloved and intended to kill her other children, but it was because she believed they'd be better off dead than living in slavery.

* OffingTheOffspring: Two-year-old Beloved is [[MercyKill Mercy Killed]] by her mother when slavers find them.

* ChildByRape: Sethe's mother had several, all of which she "threw away". She kept only Sethe because the encounter with Sethe's father was the only one that was consensual (indicated by the fact that she "put her arms around him").

* FateWorseThanDeath: Slavery is this to Sethe, to the point where she was willing to kill her children and herself rather than allow them to be re-enslaved. It's [[JustifiedTrope not without reason]].

* OffingTheOffspring: Two year old Beloved is killed by her mother.

* InfantImmortality: Horribly, horribly averted. Two year old Beloved is killed by her mother.

''Beloved'' is not your typical ghost story. It is, however, a complex character study filled to the brim with [[TearJerker tragedy]], examinations of horrific historical injustices, the pain caused by slavery, the bonds between mothers and daughters, and [[MindScrew Mind Screws]] of epic proportions.

* NoNameGiven: The eponymous character is only referred to as "the crawling-already? baby" (in flashbacks or memories), or "Beloved"[[labelnote:*]]the inscription on her grave, which Sethe chose based on something the minister said at the funeral[[/labelnote]] (in her ghost form). Presumably she had an actual name when she was alive, but the reader is never told what it is.

* SympatheticMurderer: Sethe killed Beloved and intended to kill her other children, but it was because she believed they'd be better off dead than suffering in slavery.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: schoolteacher and his nephew are both genuinely horrified when they see what [[spoiler:Seethe did to her children, with schoolteacher even sheding a SingleTear at the scene.]]

* DysfunctionalFamily: And how. Everyone is very possessive of each other due to isolation and their DarkAndTroubledPast, and the mother even tried to kill the children.

* ChildByRape: Sethe's mother had several, all of which she "threw away". She kept only Sethe because Sethe's father was the one man she "put her arms around" (consented to) during sex.

* NoNameGiven: The eponymous character is only referred to as "the crawling-already? baby" (in flashbacks or memories), or "Beloved"[[labelnote:*]]the inscription on her grave, which Sethe chose based on something the minister said at the funeral[[/labelnote]] (in her ghost form). Presumably she had an actual name, but the reader is never told what it is.

* NoNameGiven: The eponymous character is only referred to as "the crawling-already? baby" (in flashbacks or memories), or "Beloved"[[labelnote:*]]the inscription on her grave, which Sethe chose based on something the minister said at the funeral[[/labelnote]] (in her ghost form). Her given name is never revealed.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Sethe was inspired by [[http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=168 Margaret Garner]].

It was [[TheFilmOfTheBook made into a film]] in 1998, directed by Creator/JonathanDemme and starring Oprah Winfrey and Creator/DannyGlover.

* BenevolentBoss: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] by the kindly Garners, at least as the trope applies to slavery. The owners of the Sweet Home ranch treat their slaves well and deplore the abuses endemic on neighbouring farms, but ultimately are no more than watered-down versions of the sadistic schoolteacher, who have no moral qualms about possessing fellow human beings.