Toni Morrison through her novel Beloved (1987), attempts to reintroduce readers to the history of American slavery by choosing to present it through the experience of African-American community rather than that of whites. American point of view. Sethe's story, based on a real person, Margaret Garner, initiates the process of healing and reconciliation with the psychologically traumatic past. This healing ritual that Morrison highlights draws inspiration not only from Christian traditions, but also from the cultural fabric of African customs and beliefs. Much of this culture forms the foundation of the newly formed black American community after the long period of slavery. This is reflected in the various symbolisms Morrison employs to bring to life the communal narrative of the “sixty million and counting” African Americans who died during the Middle Passage and carried the legacy of the slaves. This article has chosen to examine the meaning of colors, images of trees, the act of naming and renaming, and images 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 Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Colors have played an important 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 repeated 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 "spots of orange" in the drab quilt that Baby Suggs owned represented education and hope, the color red had connotations deeper and more intense. As Morrison explains, "there is virtually no color in its pages, and when there is, it is so stark and so conspicuous as to be practically crude" ("Unspeakable" 397). Bast notes that red, which is generally considered a "universal amplifier" of intense notions of danger, blood, fire, or romance, serves an exclusive purpose in this novel. It summarizes the evils of slavery and the psychological trauma that is a consequence of this practice. Sethe draws attention to the way Baby Suggs viewed colors toward the end of his days, starting with blue, then moving to yellow, then pink, but never getting to red. She thought Baby had seen that color enough in the violence she had suffered all her life and in the baby blood that flowed from her granddaughter's slit throat. Sethe too, haunted by this image and the pink hue of her daughter's tombstone, is unable to process 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 in a riot of color as Sethe dresses her daughters in bright, flashy clothes and ribbons. The other disturbing incident associated with the color red occurs when Stamp Paid finds a red ribbon floating in the Ohio River. A horrific picture is painted of the atrocities inflicted on the slaves, when the ribbon is described as still being attached to a clump of hair with pieces of scalp still clinging to it. A less sinister episode related to color is Sethe's memory of Amy's quest 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 thatLooking at the colors gives Amy, an indentured servant, and Baby Suggs, a former slave, a sense of deep relief after a difficult life. Sethe explains Baby Suggs' new occupation with colors as that of someone who has never really had the chance to see and appreciate the world. At the same time, Amy's quest gives a sense of futility in the hope of a better future. In the case of Paul D, his "redheart" denotes feeling and emotion while the red rooster, Sir, is the symbol of virility and also calls into question Paul D's conception of it. Throughout the novel, alternating images of life and death are represented by the spectrum of the color red. The red roses that line the path leading to the carnival seem to greet the new life that Sethe, Denver and Paul D are about to embark on together, but at the same time they reek of death. Thus, we see that colors are a trope that constitutes the text itself and it is through the characters' interaction with these colors that the novel narrates the treatment of 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 the community” (126). Yet other critics, such as Michele Bonnet, argue that trees are essential to African culture and religion and play a protective and healing role in the narrative. But the truth is that no connotation, wholly negative or positive, can be attached to this imagery. These images operate in both regenerative and insidious and deceptive frames. The first example that has been scrutinized over and over again is the “choke cherry tree” on Sethe’s back. The scar marks the ordeals overcome in the legacy of slavery and bears witness to the trauma while sublimating the place of brutality by being compared to a flowery image of life. Amy's visualization of the scar as a pretty tree presents not only faith in art and imagination, but also the need to make sense of the slave's narrative. This is the objective achieved by the novel thanks to the power of translation exercised by language to reinvent a source of pain and humiliation into a symbol of growth and hope. Next, Denver's boxwood "emerald closet" is seen as a refuge from her loneliness where she ironically seeks solace in isolation. Similarly, Paul D finds a companion in a tree in Sweet Home, whom he calls "Brother". He is also comforted on his long journey to freedom by the flowering trees that guide him north. Sethe also associates an Edenic design with the Sweet Home plantation by thinking of the beautiful trees that grew there as she reflects on her past (Weathers cited by Terrill, 127). The clearing where Baby Suggs performed his healing rituals is another example of their central role in African spirituality and combating trauma. But they are also sites of horrific incidents such as the burning of Sixo and the lynching of other slaves that Paul D. witnesses during his wanderings. The trees thus hide the insidious acts committed by the schoolteacher and his nephews in Sweet Home and are therefore also linked to the darker side of humanity. This is reinforced by Stamp Paid's speech about how white people "put the jungle" on slaves and then fear the consequences of the savagery they are responsible for. The act of naming is linked to each person's sense of identity and individuality. This right to choose who they are for themselves is also taken away by white slave owners who have the need to organizeand to “define” everything around them (Crevecoeur) – whether plants, animals or slaves. Baby Suggs' ignorance of the official name given to him by slave traders and his search for his family underscore the absence of "self-knowledge" and "self-recognition" under slavery. The reader discovers that her life before Sweet Home was dark and that her former master never even called her by any name. This absence of a name signifies the very denial of his humanity. Upon her release, she refuses to use the name on her bill of sale and retains the name that her husband had given her and that the rest of her community recognized her, thus proving the importance of relationships in her identity. It is a movement toward freeing herself from the bonds of slavery and claiming ownership of herself. Likewise, Stamp Paid also rejects his name on the bill of sale, Joshua, which had biblical foundations. His new name marks the trials he has experienced, particularly the one where he has no rights over his own wife who is exploited on several occasions by his master's son. While Baby Suggs' name is linked to social relationships and love, Stamp Paid's "name change" is a reminder of his outrage. It also refers to his role as an envoy for the Underground Railroad which ensured that the “package” (the people sent) would definitely reach its destination. Like Sethe's scar, her name gives power and marks the honor of having survived the trials of slavery and defying the teachers' command that "definitions belonged to the definers and not to the defined." It is in this regard that Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid assert themselves and assume the position of definers. Morrison also introduces a different view of the meaning of names through the characters of Sethe and Beloved. Both of these names have roots in the biblical context; Sethe being derived from the biblical figure Seth and Beloved from the pastoral sermon which begins with the words "Dear Beloved". Sethe is considered the antithetical to Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve who is favored by God and is also the blessed and prosperous "father of humanity". Yet, they share a similarity in that both play the role of savior of their race. Sethe's breastfed baby, on the other hand, never had the chance to possess an identity. She died without a name, and the name that Sethe chooses to have engraved on her headstone is a reverse rendition of the one to whom the phrase "Dearly Beloved" was originally intended to address. In sermons, the pastor addresses his congregants, that is, the living members of the church who have gathered to mourn the dead, calling them “Beloved.” Sethe's use of the word "Beloved" is powerful because it merges both the world of the living and the dead. Beloved, who is a representative of the repressed slave past, is also, literally, something to "be loved", as Krumholz explains that the healing process is propelled by each character coming to terms with their past, however traumatic and elusive (407). Among the abundance of meaningful images and metaphors that Toni Morrison uses in the novel, the recurring image of water is a symbol with the deepest connection to the narrative. Images of water such as rain, river and water itself have complex psychological and religious underpinnings. Parallels can be drawn between the direction of the narrative and the movement of water which is fluid, thus alluding to the freedom of a person'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 through time. It also plays a crucial role in the. 384-395.