The Trinity of Time: An Assessment of the Past, Present, and Future in Beloved Joe DiConsiglio College

Give Toni Morrison a stake in the creation of user experience writing because she made every single word she wrote count. She opens Beloved in the simplest three words, “124 was spiteful.” Right off the bat, she personifies a number and leaves a gap of confusion in the place where the “3” should be. The number 124 was not picked out of a hat, “spiteful” was not an adjective she found in a dictionary in the place of “angry,” and she clearly meant to say “was.” Not “is,” not “had been,” 124 was spiteful.There are three words (counting the number) in that opening sentence. There are three parts of the novel, each of which starts with a sentence that says “124 was...” The number three has the utmost significance in Beloved through the relationship between the past, present, and future of any three given characters living in 124. Morrison was able to foreshadow these occurrences in what on the surface appears as the simplest way possible. But in truth was pure genius.

Throughout Beloved, there are three characters living in 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. However, the three characters never live in perfect harmony. There is always tension and it seems as if one of the characters is out of place. One of them is always spiteful....