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ISSN No. 2321-2705 | DOI: 10.51244/IJRSI |Volume XII Issue VIII August 2025
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Racial Identity and Ecological Belonging in Toni Morrison’s Beloved:
A Study through Social Identity Theory and Eco-Race Theory
Ms. V. Priyanka
1
, Dr. P. Saravanan
2
1
Research Scholar, Government Arts College Coimbatore, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Arts College Coimbatore, India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2025.120800174
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025; Published: 17 September 2025
ABSTRACT
This paper examines Toni Morrison’s Beloved in 1987 through Social Identity Theory and Eco-Race Theory to
explore how race, memory, and environment intersect in the aftermath of slavery. Social Identity Theory by
Tajfel & Turner, in 1979, highlights the ways African Americans rebuilt collective identity in the face of
exclusion, while Eco-Race Theory by Bullard in 1990 and Chavis in 1987 underscores how landscapes,
plantations, haunted houses, and clearings carry racialized trauma. While these frameworks illuminate the
social and ecological dimensions of identity, the study also reflects critically on their limitations: Social
Identity Theory can oversimplify complex, intersectional identities, while Eco-Race Theory has been critiqued
for privileging U.S.-centric models of environmental racism. Beyond theoretical analysis, the paper situates
Beloved within contemporary debates on systemic racism, environmental justice, and collective healing.
Morrison’s narrative techniques of haunting, fragmentation, and shifting perspectives embody these
entanglements, offering both a warning and a vision for ecological and social restoration.
Keywords: Social Identity Theory, Eco-Race Theory, Race, Identity, Environment, and Slavery
INTRODUCTION
Toni Morrison’s Beloved in1987, inspired by the historical account of Margaret Garner, is not only a story of
personal trauma but also a meditation on slavery’s ongoing scars inscribed upon people, communities, and
landscapes. The novel portrays how African Americans negotiated identity, survival, and belonging in hostile
racial systems. This paper applies Social Identity Theory to trace the reconstruction of Black collective identity
under slavery and Eco-Race Theory to examine how racial trauma is embedded in ecological spaces.
Importantly, the paper reflects on the strengths and limitations of these frameworks and considers Morrison’s
narrative strategies as integral to expressing memory, identity, and ecological haunting. By placing Beloved in
dialogue with current debates on environmental justice and systemic racism, the study argues that Morrison’s
novel anticipates struggles that remain urgent today.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Cathy Caruth in 1996 and Ashraf Rushdy in 1999 interpret the novel as a trauma narrative where Beloved
represents the return of the repressed. Morrison herself described the book as an attempt to fill the silence of
slavery’s stories. Deborah Horvitz in 1989 and Valerie Smith in 1991 view Sethe’s act of killing her child as
both resistance and trauma, showing the extremity of maternal love under slavery. Philip Page in 1995 and
Mae Henderson in 1992 emphasize the community’s role in healing, particularly through the women’s
collective exorcism of Beloved. Avery Gordon, in 1997, describes 124 Bluestone Road as a haunted space
embodying racial history. Kimberly Ruffin in 2010 connects African American literature with ecological
displacement, arguing that slavery uprooted both cultural and environmental belonging. While scholarship
abounds on trauma and community, few critics apply Social Identity Theory and Eco-Race Theory together,
which this paper addresses.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)
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Theoretical Framework
Social Identity Theory
Henri Tajfel and John Turner’s Social Identity Theory emphasizes the division of groups into “ingroup” and
“outgroup,” where membership shapes pride, stigma, and belonging. Applied to slavery, whiteness dominated
the ingroup while Blackness was cast into the outgroup. This framework explains Sethe’s and the community’s
struggles to rebuild a collective African American identity. However, the theory’s limitation lies in its
abstraction: it does not fully capture intersectional experiences of race, gender, and ecology that Morrison
foregrounds. For example, Sethe’s motherhood, Baby Suggs’s spiritual authority, and Denver’s coming-of-age
demonstrate how gendered identities complicate collective belonging. Morrison shows that survival requires
not only group solidarity but also acknowledgment of women’s leadership and embodied memory in shaping
identity.
Eco-Race Theory
Eco-Race Theory, emerging from the work of Robert D. Bullard and Benjamin Chavis Jr., demonstrates that
race and environment are intertwined, with marginalized groups often subjected to ecological harm. In
Beloved, landscapes such as the plantation, the haunted house, and the Clearing are ecological sites marked by
slavery’s racial violence. Yet, Eco-Race Theory has been critiqued for being U.S.-centric, privileging
environmental racism in policy terms without always accounting for symbolic, cultural, and literary
expressions. Morrison’s novel broadens the framework by showing how ecology also functions as a space of
memory and haunting. Connecting this to contemporary debates, we see resonances with environmental justice
struggles such as the Flint water crisis and Hurricane Katrina, where race again determined vulnerability,
displacement, and resilience.
Analysis
Identity, Ingroup, and Outgroup
Slavery denied enslaved people individuality. Sethe recalls that her back was branded with scars that looked
like a “chokecherry tree” (p. 20), marking her body as property. This dehumanization placed her in the racial
outgroup. Yet Social Identity Theory explains that African Americans created ingroups for survival. Baby
Suggs preaches in the Clearing, “Here, in this place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on
bare feet in grass” (p. 103). This communal ritual turns an outgroup into an empowered ingroup, reclaiming
dignity through community and environment.
Trauma, Memory, and Collective Identity
Beloved herself is a symbol of trauma. She tells Sethe, “I am Beloved and she is mine” (p. 248), binding Sethe
to the memory of slavery and loss. Social Identity Theory suggests that trauma isolates, but collective
recognition heals. The final scene, where women unite to exorcise Beloved, shows this: “In the beginning there
were no words. In the beginning was the sound, the collective pounding of the women” (p. 305). Their
solidarity reclaims identity as shared rather than broken.
The Plantation as an Ecological Prison
Sweet Home plantation is described with deceptive beauty: “It was a lovely place, but none of the men knew
it” (p. 12). The land is fertile, but enslaved men and women cannot belong to it. Eco-Race Theory explains that
the plantation reduced both land and people to exploitation. Sethe recalls, “There is no bad luck in the world
but whitefolks” (p. 104), linking racial domination to ecological exile.
A Haunted Landscape
The house at 124 is not neutral. Morrison writes, “124 was loud. 124 was spiteful. 124 was quiet” (p. 3). The
house carries the spirit of Beloved, embodying the violent history of slavery. Eco-Race Theory sees 124 as an
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)
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ecological memory site, a landscape racialized by trauma. Sethe cannot escape the house because it holds the
ecological mark of slavery.
The Clearing as Ecological Healing
In contrast, the Clearing represents hope. Baby Suggs tells the people to love their bodies: “Here, in this place,
we flesh love it. Love it hard” (p. 104). In nature, trees, grass, and sky become part of spiritual healing. Eco-
Race Theory interprets this as reclaiming ecological belonging, turning the environment into resistance against
racial oppression.
Gender, Motherhood, and Ecological Identity
While Sethe’s decision to kill Beloved reflects a mother’s desperate protection against slavery, Morrison
presents gendered identity as multifaceted. Baby Suggs embodies spiritual leadership, creating spaces of
healing in the Clearing where Black bodies could be celebrated. Denver, moving from isolation to community
participation, represents a younger generation’s resilience and agency. These women collectively demonstrate
that Black female identity in Beloved is not defined solely by motherhood but also by resistance, care,
leadership, and survival. This complexity deepens our understanding of how gender interacts with social and
ecological identities under slavery.
CONCLUSION
Through Social Identity Theory, Beloved demonstrates that African Americans rebuilt fractured identities by
forming ingroups of solidarity. Through Eco-Race Theory, the novel illustrates how landscapes themselves, by
haunting, violating, and healing, carry racialized memory. Yet Morrison’s fragmented narrative structure,
shifting voices, and ghostly presences embody trauma in ways that these theories alone cannot fully explain.
Critically, the frameworks remind us of their limits: Social Identity Theory risks oversimplifying intersectional
experience, while Eco-Race Theory can remain policy-driven unless expanded to include cultural memory and
narrative. By synthesizing them and situating the novel in dialogue with current struggles over systemic racism
and environmental justice, this paper shows how Beloved remains urgently relevant. Morrison not only
testifies to slavery’s enduring wounds but also anticipates the ecological and social demands of justice
movements today.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)
ISSN No. 2321-2705 | DOI: 10.51244/IJRSI |Volume XII Issue VIII August 2025
Page 1948
www.rsisinternational.org
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