Beloved centers on Sethe’s struggle to make peace with the choices in her past, and in the process we see Denver and Paul D. trying to come to terms with their own past as well. Even though none of them are still enslaved, the memories of Sethe’s and Paul D’s experiences at Sweet Home still haunt them both literally and figuratively. As they try to reclaim and understand the past, one of the most significant motifs in the novel is the importance of names and language.
One of the first scenes in the novel shows how Beloved got her name, when Sethe heard the preacher address of the “dearly beloved” mourners and thought he meant her child. We never hear the real name of the child (if there is one), and she is known as “Beloved” by all of the other characters. It’s the most prominent example of a symbolic name in the book: she has no identity except for Sethe’s love for her, and, like the name, Sethe gave her that identity. The irony and truth in the name is a continuing theme throughout the novel, and the reader is always left wondering what it really means that the child is nothing apart from beloved.
There are many other examples of the power of names and definitions in the novel as well. Sweet Home, the plantation Sethe and her family grew up on has an ambiguity that is amplified by its name. It was the site of horrific abuses, but at the same time, it was some kind of home in the sense that Sethe was together with friends and family there. The owner, Garner, said his slaves were “men,” but they were still slaves, and in a way his treatment of them only increased his own power. As the owner of the plantation, he got to decide how to define them and it became increasingly clear that their name -- the “Sweet Home Men” -- was seemingly dependent upon Garner to be true.
For Stamp Paid and Baby Suggs, choosing their own name was a way to reclaim their life. Stamp Paid changed his name after his wife was taken because it was the only thing he could do to have some control over his life. Then as his life went on, it became the way he defined himself, and he dedicated himself to helping other people because of his name’s meaning. Baby Suggs was named “Jenny Garner” on her bill of sale, but she chose to be called Baby Suggs instead because that was what her husband called her.
The significance of choosing one's own name is even greater in the context of slavery. For slaves, literacy was discouraged, because it gave slaves the power to read the bible, news, and everything else that challenged the slave-owner's picture of reality. Slaves were often forced to take the last name of their owner, and slurs, especially the n-word, were used as a way to oppress and control them. In Beloved, we see examples of this, but also ways reclaimed names and language allowed many characters to have some measure of control over their own lives.
