Toni Morrison through her novel, Beloved (1987), attempts to introduce readers to the history of American slavery by choosing to present it through the experience of the African-American community rather than the white one American perspective. Sethe's narrative, based on a real person, Margaret Garner, begins the process of healing and reconciliation with her psychologically traumatic past. This healing ritual that Morrison brings to the foreground draws not only on Christian traditions but also on the cultural fabric of African customs and beliefs. Much of this culture is the foundation of the black American community that just formed after the long period of slavery. This is reflected in the various symbolisms used by Morrison to bring to life the communal narrative of the “sixty million and more” African Americans who died during the Middle Passage and are bearers of the legacy of the slaves. This article has chosen to examine the meaning of colours, the imagery of trees, the act of naming and renaming, and the imagery of water which are powerful symbols throughout Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Colors have played a significant role in literature and are used to convey a myriad of meanings. Morrison uses color to convey the “consequences of slavery” as part of what Cheryl Hall describes as a “sophisticated system of repeating motifs” that is at play in the novel (Bast, “Reading Red”). While colors such as the emerald green of the “Denver boxwood room” and the two “orange spots” in the opaque quilt owned by Baby Suggs, represented nourishment and hope, the color red had deeper and more intense connotations attached to it. As explained by Morrison “there is practically no color in his pages, and when there is, it is so stark and underlined, it is practically raw” (“Unspeakable” 397). Bast notes that red, which is usually seen as a “universal amplifier” of intense notions of danger, blood, fire, or romance, has a unique purpose in this novel. It encapsulates the evils of slavery and the psychological trauma that is a consequence of this practice. Sethe draws attention to how Baby Suggs contemplated colors towards the end of her days starting with blue and then proceeding to yellow and then pink, but never arriving at red. She believed Baby had seen enough of that color in the violence she had experienced throughout her life and in the baby blood that had spilled from her niece's slit throat. Even Sethe, obsessed with this image and the pink hue of her daughter's tombstone, is unable to process any other colors until the third part of the book where she discovers that her daughter has returned in the form of Beloved. This is when we see Morrison bring a riot of color as Sethe dresses her daughters in bright, eye-catching dresses and ribbons. The other disturbing incident associated with the color red is when Stamp Paid finds a red ribbon floating in the Ohio River. A gruesome picture is painted of the atrocities inflicted on the slaves, when the tape is described as still attached to a lock of hair which still has bits of scalp attached to it. A less sinister color-related episode is Sethe's memory of Amy's search for carmine (red) velvet which resonates with Baby Suggs' desire to look at different colored pieces of fabric. The most powerful message conveyed here is that the small pleasure derived from looking at colors gives both Amy, an indentured servant, and Baby Suggs, a former slave, a sense of profound relief after a lifetime of hardship. Sethe explains theBaby Suggs' new occupation with colors like that of someone who has never had the chance to see the world and appreciate it. At the same time, Amy's search has a sense of futility in the hope of a better future. In the case of Paul D, his “red heart” denotes feeling and emotion while the red rooster, Mister, is the symbol of virility and also calls into question Paul D's conception of it. Throughout the novel, alternating images of life and of death are represented by the red color spectrum. The red roses that line the carnival avenue seem to greet the new life that Sethe, Denver and Paul D are about to undertake together but at the same time they smell of death. We therefore see that the colors are a trope that constitutes the text itself and it is through the interaction of the characters with these colors that the novel narrates the processing of the trauma (Bast). According to William J. Terrill, “Beloved explores trees within the specific consciousness of American slavery, where they have multivalent meanings: whips, switches, scars, and, paradoxically, the healing and regenerative power of nature and community” (126). However, other critics such as Michele Bonnet argue that trees are crucial to African culture and religion and play a protective and healing role in storytelling. But the truth is that no connotation can be attributed to these images, neither entirely negative nor positive. These images work both in the regenerative and insidious and deceptive fields. The first example that has been endlessly examined is the “choked cherry tree” on Sethe's back. The scar marks the sufferings overcome in the slaves' legacy and bears witness to the trauma while sublimating the site of brutality by comparing it to an image that blooms with life. Amy's visualization of the scar as a beautiful tree not only presents faith in art and imagination, but also the need to make sense of the slave narrative. This is what the novel achieves through the power of translation exerted by language to reimagine a source of pain and humiliation as a symbol of growth and hope. Subsequently, Denver's “emerald closet” of boxwood trees is seen as a rest from his solitude in which he ironically seeks solace in isolation. Similarly, Paul D finds a mate in a tree in Sweet Home, who he refers to as "Brother". On his long journey to freedom he is also comforted by the flowering trees that guide him north. Sethe also associates an Edenic conception with the Sweet Home plantation by thinking of the beautiful trees that grew there as she reflects on her past (Weathers quoted by Terrill, 127). The clearing where Baby Suggs performed her healing rituals is another example of their centrality to African spirituality and overcoming trauma. But they are also places where terrifying episodes occurred such as the burning of Sixo and the lynching of other slaves that Paul D. witnessed during his wanderings. The trees thus hide the insidious acts committed by the master and his nephews at Sweet Home and are therefore also connected to the darker side of humanity. Added to this is Stamp Paid's talk about how white people "jungle" slaves and then fear the consequences of the savagery for which they are responsible. The act of naming is linked to one's sense of identity and individuality. This right to choose for themselves who they are is also taken away from white slave owners who have the need to organize and “define” everything around them (Crevecoeur), be it plants, animals or slaves. Baby Suggs's unawareness of the official name given to her by slave traders and her search for her family highlight the absence of "self-knowledge" and“self-recognition” under slavery. The reader discovers that her life before Sweet Home was bleak and her old master didn't even call her by any name. This namelessness means the very denial of his humanity. Once freed, she refuses to put her name on the bill of sale and keeps the name that her husband had given her and that the rest of her community had recognized, thus demonstrating the importance of relationships with her identity. This is a movement towards freeing her from the bonds of slavery and reclaiming ownership of herself. Likewise, Stamp Paid also rejects his name on the bill of sale, Joshua, which had biblical basis. His new name marks the trials he has experienced, especially one in which he has no rights over his own wife, who is repeatedly exploited by her master's son. While Baby Suggs' name is linked to social relationships and love, Stamp Paid's “renaming” is a reminder of his outrage. He also refers to his role as an Underground Railroad envoy who ensured that the “package” (the people sent) safely arrived at their destination. Like Sethe's scar, his name is empowering and marks the honor of having survived the hardships of slavery and defied the teacher's command that "definitions belonged to the definer and not to the defined." It is in this sense that Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid reclaim themselves and assume the position of definers. Morrison also introduces a different perspective on the meaning of names through the characters of Sethe and Beloved. Both of these names have roots in the biblical context; Sethe comes from the biblical figure Seth and the Beloved from the pastoral sermon that begins with the words “Dearest.” Sethe is considered antithetical to Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, favored by God and is also the blessed and prosperous "father of mankind". However, they share a similarity in that they both play the role of saviors for their race. The child nursed by Sethe, however, never had the chance to possess an identity. He died without a name, and the name Sethe chooses to have engraved on his tombstone is an inverted interpretation of the name to which the phrase "Dear Beloved" originally referred. In sermons, the pastor addresses his flock, that is, the living members of the church who have gathered to mourn the dead, as “Beloved.” Sethe's use of the word “Beloved” is powerful as it blends both the world of the living and the dead. Beloved, who is a representative of the repressed slave past, is also in the literal sense something to "be loved", as Krumholz explains that the healing process is brought about by each character who accepts their past, no matter how traumatic and elusive ( 407).Among the abundance of meaningful images and metaphors that Toni Morrison employs in the novel, the recurring image of water is a symbol with the deepest connection to the narrative. The images of water as rain, of the river, and of water itself have intricate psychological and religious underpinnings. Parallels can be drawn between the direction of the narrative and the movement of the water which is fluid, thus suggesting freedom in one's stream of consciousness as well as the lack of control one has over it (Chen and Wang, 95). Memory and water are intertwined devices where, just like flowing water, Sethe's memory wanders back and forth in time. It also plays a crucial role in signifying the relationship shared between Sethe and Beloved, when the ghost returns to the world of the living. The first appearance of Beloved as he emerges from the river is embarrassing and very similar to that of a child emerging from the waters of the mother's womb. Later, when Sethe meets her outside the house, she feels the sudden urge to lose water, really. 384-395.