Authorial Intent in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison (post 18)

Are novels written primarily to promote ideas? If you think so, you may assume that Morrison wrote Beloved to raise consciousness about the horrors of slavery. And Morrison probably did want to raise consciousness about the horrors of slavery.

But if promoting the credibility of the horrors of slavery had been her primary motivation, she would not have written her novel as a ghost story, especially one with this ending: Sethe is judged mentally ill—“That woman is crazy. Crazy.” (1, p. 305)—and Beloved may have been imaginary.

I think that novels are written (apart from money) to express the author’s psychological issues (through stories co-written by alternate personalities).

1. Toni Morrison. Beloved [1987]. New York, Everyman’s/Knopf, 2006.