Lumbering Giants

It's quite amazing how humans can warp an image in their heads. Something with so much life in one person's eyes could be a lifeless hunk of trunk in another. Yet, the truly remarkable fact about these "lumbering" giants is that even after humanity has died down, trees will continue to adapt and age under the harshest conditions so they can continue their fight to survive. In Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved", trees serve as sources of life, security, and predominantly: escape. They emphasize the tranquility that the natural world offers. Using the novel's characters and her provocative narration, Morrison seems to convey a message that when one lives through an ordeal as horrible and terrifying as slavery, one will naturally find comfort in the simple and harmless aspects of life.

Throughout the novel, Morrison's characters hint towards the underlying themes of trees, especially Sethe and Paul D. During Sethe's time in slavery, she has witnessed many gruesome and horrible events that many blacks endured, such as whippings and lynching's. Sethe recalls the "boys hanging from the most beautiful sycamores in the world. It shamed her- remembering the wonderful soughing trees rather than the boys." (6) For Sethe, the memory of the sycamores and the lynching of the boys are inextricably tied together. Rather than confront her traumatic pasts, she focuses on the trees to sort of "escape" from the memories of Sweet Home. The beauty of the trees provides a means for Sethe to access her past and not fall to the trauma of those awful memories. In yet another repressed memory, Schoolteacher whips Sethe, leaving her back stained with leathery scars. Sethe refers to the scars as a chokecherry tree to soothe and lessen the physical and emotional pain that comes with the scars: "I've never seen it and never will. But that's what she said she it looked like, a chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves." (17) She imagines the scar as something beautiful and full of life, for she needs to shed a positive light upon her past as a slave. Similar to Sethe's association with the sycamores and slave lynching's, she needs to dilute her past by associating her pain with a pleasant and comfortable image. She masks her haunting memories of Sweet Home by viewing them as a living tree.

While Sethe thinks of trees to heal and calm her suffering, Paul D. directly looks to trees as his escape from day-to-day slave life. During Paul D's time as a slave, he chose to love trees for their kind and comforting qualities: "... tress were inviting; things you could trust and be near." (22) After Paul D. makes the daring decision to escape, he finds his freedom by heeding the Cherokee's directions, and following the flowering forests to the North. It seems as if Paul relates to trees as human beings, and uses them for guidance throughout his perils. Paul chooses a tree, one