Essay | The Making of a Man: Dialogic Meaning in Beloved

Ms. Sitter uses a Bakhtinian evaluation of the novel Beloved to establish the meaning of manhood. Within this novel Toni Morrison uses dialogue between the stories of Sethe and Paul D to set up differing definitions of a man. Within each of the dialogues Morrison uses the same objects, particularly the presence of a tree, to mean radically different things. She also uses the interactions between the stories to establish her images and definitions within different cultural contexts (the culture of white America vs. African tribal culture, the culture of free people vs. the culture of slavery).

Bakhtin believes that culture is represented and shaped by language. Language is a living and dyadic force that always expects a response. The novel is structured as a dialogue made up of a variety of different voices coexisting and competing to make meaning in the interaction and interstices...
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