This is the unnamed daughter of Margaret Garner, the slave woman who killed her child rather than see her returned to slavery. Beloved , of course, takes off from this actual incident. Little by little bringing her back into living life. This process of healing parallels Toni Morrison's gradual reclamation of the parts of the dead slave girl. Healing is a painful process in Toni Morrison's work.
Healing means embracing rather than evading the past.
It means assessing with a clear eye how the past affects the present. This is hard. And yet no healing takes place in Toni Morrison's fiction without the taking of responsibility. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.