The Treatment Of Names Toni Morrison s Beloved And...

To many individual’s names are a personification of their identity, a way to make them unique and mold them into the person they hope to be. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre the treatment of names are utilized in a way to place characters into the role of second class citizens, but once certain characters shed their names they gain themselves a new sense of freedom. In the book Beloved the renaming of Baby Suggs assists in removing her from the role of second class citizen. The name Baby Suggs is an interesting chose for a grown woman who is often called Grandma Baby by her grandchildren (Morrison 113), her name is an oxymoron because she is an adult being called a baby. At first the name comes off as being degrading, it doesn’t feel like an appropriate name for a freed slave. However, the name Baby Suggs is the character’s way of freeing herself from the subservient rolls she has been placed in all her life. On Baby Suggs bill of her sale her name was listed as Jenny Whitlow. The last name Whitlow belonging to her previous slave owner; it is the name that the Garners have chosen to call her. However, in a conversation with Mr. Garner just after Baby Suggs gains her freedom it is learned that the last name Suggs belonged to her husband who was sold away and Baby was the first name he used to call her (Morrison 167). By choosing the name Baby Suggs after her husband it is a form of empowerment for her. Baby Suggs is a name that was not give n to her