Inner Voices of Memory: An Investigation of Tony Morrison’s Beloved

Toni Morrison has been considered as one of the most well-known black writers whose writings mostly revolve around the role of memory in showing how bottled-up and repressed memories can be reflected in the lives of her female protagonists. This study is an attempt to apply Freud s theory of repression in the analysis of Morrison s Beloved. This study will examine how the main character of Beloved is under social and cultural pressure, and uses her past life to cope with her present situation. Freud s theories of memory mean to focus on the manifestation of time, its effects and the influence of the past memory on a character s desires and behaviors. Since the obsession with the past is one of the main themes of Beloved, the present research tries to provide a detailed examination of memory and its repression in this novel. The present study also intends to discuss the role of the time and memory in this novel that is written by a female writer about a female character. Through investigating the reflection of time and reminiscence of the past in this novel, this article will show how memories, particularly the repressed memories, can affect the identity of the character.