Author's Style

Morrison uses the present tense throughout Beloved, although the narrative spans a period of some fifty years. Moreover, the readers are often denied vital knowledge. The shifting voice of the narrator, which flits in and out of different characters' thoughts, conveys a similar process of defamiliarisation for the reader. In section Two there are four sections that represent the interior monologues of Sethe, Denver and Beloved. The language in these sections are highly repetitive and circular. This style is called stream of consciousness. She plays repetition, a musical device, repeating memories and images. She uses numerous metaphors that are self- reflexive, referring a context and experiences already established by the novel.