How does Toni Morrisons writing style have an impact on the story and themes?
Beloved is influenced by a style called “magical realism,” in which the supernatural exists right alongside the everyday. People accept things like ghosts as simply a part of life. However, Toni Morrison does not simply write in magical realism. Her style in this book allows the reader to understand the disastrous impact of slavery on her characters’ lives and spirits. Rather than telling the story chronologically, Morrison jumps about in time, which not only creates a sense of mystery but also forces the reader actively to contemplate the relationship between different events. When Paul D first arrives, he needs to walk through a sad, haunted part of the house, which Sethe identifies as her daughter who died (10). A little later, Denver remembers how, as a child, she saw a white dress embracing her mother in prayer (31). And, we learn that “Sethe had twenty-eight days-the travel of one whole moon-of unslaved life” (100). However, none of these facts are connected for the reader until
