With Reference to Beloved

The ideas of mourning and loss are played out through various stages of denial and acceptance. They find expression in the belief in spirits, the power of symbolic objects and ritual ceremonies, the polarity of emotions, the realm of the conscious and unconscious, and the mental, emotional and physical interplay of past and present.
Sethe, pregnant, sent her two sons and infant daughter ahead to flee via the Underground Railroad. She waited for her husband, Halle, at a predetermined place and time so that they could flee together. However, he did not show up and she went looking for him.…