Perennial Fluidity: An Analysis of 'Water' Imagery in Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

Abstract

Water, across various cultures, has significant value as human needs and spirituality are interconnected with water which is suppose to purify and heal. Water is symbolic of divinity and serves various ceremonial, social and economic purposes. Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved” uses water as a recurring image represented as indispensable in African religion and culture. Water is used to reveal the mind and psychology of characters, a symbol of birth, afterlife (rebirth) and emancipation, power and destruction, in the novel. This research paper aims to explore the semantic and contextual understanding of the imagery of water that will provide a new perspective to a deeper understanding of the novel