Consider any of Toni Morrison's other novels, which explore African American identity. The Bluest Eye, for example, takes place long after the events of Beloved, but deals with racism and employs similar shifts in time (through flashbacks) and narration. Reading these two novels together, one can compare the struggle for empowerment by black women in Ohio both shortly after the abolition of slavery as well as long afterward. In 2005, Morrison wrote an opera called Margaret Garner, based on the story the runaway slave who was the real-life inspiration for Beloved's Sethe.
Sojourner Truth's famous "Ain't I A Woman?" speech provides valuable insight into the life--and strength--of a former...
