Tracing Intertextuality in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Jazz

Beloved, Sethe's dead daughter had, she seems to have information that only Beloved could have known; the song Sethe sang to her children, the crystal earrings that Mrs. Garner Sethe’s mistress, gave her. A girl that was locked up "since she was a pup" (Morrison 235) couldn't possibly have known these things about Sethe.

Beloved does not give any clear explanations as to where she was, before coming to 124 Bluestone Road. When questioned by Denver about "there" she responds, "I'm small in that place. Nothing to breathe down there and no room to move in” (Morrison 75), makes you think she is describing where the white man who was sexually abusing her, kept her locked in, but then she goes on "a lot of people down here. Some dead" (Morrison 75) and you are left wondering whether Beloved is describing death or her ordeal with the white man. It is from this experience she describes that we can explain Beloved's mental instability; the sexual abuse that makes her afraid of men, and her emotions of desertion and loneliness, probably the reason she opts to stay away from civilization and goes into the wilderness as Wild in Morrison's novel, Jazz. Hunter's Hunter describes Wild as "the local mystery, a crazy homeless rover."(Cutter 65)

Beloved claims she knew one white man “one of them was in the house I was in. He hurt me” (Morrison 215). This fact sheds a little light on Stamps’ theory about Beloved’s origin; she could be the girl locked up by the white man. Infant Beloved also knew one white man, Schoolteacher, who neither touched nor hurt her; as a matter of fact,

the whole point of Sethe killing Beloved was so that the school teacher could not harm her.

Wild and Beloved bear this charm or in Beloved's case, a weird supernatural ability to manipulate men into doing their bidding. Wild drives men to distraction, causing them to go "soft in the head,"(Morrison 167) evident from when Golden Gray strays from his agendum of blowing off his father’s head off to help unconscious Wild. She drives Gray “away from death” (Morrison 153); she changes Golden Gray’s mind about killing his father, something he seemed so committed to doing. Golden Gray describes his emotions towards Wild as both attraction and repulsion. The similar manner in which Paul D felt about Beloved. Beloved draws Paul D away from the bed he shares with Sethe and away from the house and finally manipulates him into having sexual intercourse with her.

Both characters seem to have a hunger for sugary sweet things. Sethe feels that the only thing that satisfies Beloved just as much as sweet things do is stories. Same character traits are evident in Wild, "Whenever wild goes, she leaves traces that one can follow, like "ruined honeycombs" (Morrison 176). Joe Trace notices honeycombs on his way to find Wild in the cage that she lives in, with Golden Gray. In conclusion, Beloved and Wild is the same character; Wild is possessed by the ghost of Beloved, Sethe's daughter who died 18 years back. It is Wild who gets pregnant by Paul D and leaves 124 Bluestone to deliver Joe Trace in Virginia, in the second novel, Jazz.

Works cited

1. Cutter, Martha J. "The story must go on and on: The fantastic,
   

narration, and intertextuality in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Jazz." African American Review 34.1 (2000): 61-75.