A Sense of Self and Identity Concealed in Hierarchy and Dependency in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved depicts the characters deeply affected by trauma of slavery resulting in emotional and psychological dependency. Emergence of the self in the modern sense refers to releasing it from hierarchy and dependency. Through social interactions, the ego develops to be responsible for oneself and for upholding its own image. William James, a psychologist, claimed that the self is fundamentally a social construction that develops by social experiences. “Selfhood” is shaped by life events and interactions with individuals. Self awareness brings in joy, contentment, fulfilment and freedom. The nature of the self has been a subject of discussion in both the East and the West since antiquity, and it still is. The philosophical treatises known as the Upanishads, which were written in India between 1500 and 600 BC, examine the nature of selfhood.