Breaking the Frame: Beloved, The Life Before Us and Feminist Art Reclaim Women’s Stories

For centuries, women were spoken for, spoken over, and spoken about but were rarely allowed to speak. That silence is shattered by Toni Morrison's Beloved and Romain Gary's The Life Before Us, as characters Sethe and Madame Rosa illustrate their individual stories, aligning with feminists' cries for recognition in the 1960s through the 1980s. The Feminist Art Movement was a breaking point from the long-held male-centered perspective in the art world. The movement's purpose was to place women in the conversation by showing their real-life experiences and perspectives (Grimes). With Beloved being written in 1987 and The Life Before Us in 1975, they were both heavily influenced by The Feminist Art Movement's shift in perspective and power. Through the characters Sethe and Madame Rosa, the authors, like the artists from The Feminist Art Movement, reclaim women's voices from silence and share their lived experiences through art and storytelling to accurately represent women without the sexist lens perpetrated by society.

Parallels are present in both novels' representation of motherhood, with Morrison's Sethe and Gary's representation of Madame Rosa, and through Feminist Artist Judy Chicago's feminist prints. Together, their works put women in the conversation and show that their sacrifices and strengths as mothers do not deserve silence. Without women, nobody in the world would exist. So, why do women not receive much credit or recognition? Morrison proves that women deserve recognition by telling Sethe's story as a testimony as she narrates her struggles as a mother by sacrificing her child rather than letting her grow up in slavery. By allowing Sethe to narrate her own lived experiences, Morrison uses her voice and experience as evidence of the strength that women of minorities have shown throughout history. Sethe justifies sacrificing her baby and explains, "I took and put my babies where they would be safe… it occurred to [Paul D] that what [Sethe] wanted for her children was exactly what was missing in 124: safety" (Morrison 193). Her children have always been Sethe's purpose and guide in life through the harsh realities of their world. Mothers have a unique attachment to their children, serving as protectors and guides in their lives, with the burden of having all the responsibility and accountability. Sethe takes responsibility for the life she has brought her child into by doing the one thing she can think of to protect her: kill her. The irony of murdering out of love shows the hardships of the sacrifices mothers make to protect their children. Throughout the entire book, Sethe deals with the consequences and internal conflicts of putting her child's life above her own. Now, her child does not have to live through the merciless struggles of their world, while Sethe still does. Gary also shows the lived experiences of minority women in The Life Before Us with Madame Rosa, a Jewish immigrant and Holocaust survivor, who takes on a motherly role of caring for neglected children of prostitutes. While the book The Life Before Us is narrated by Momo, Mme. Rosa's stories and guidance shape Momo's narrative and perspective in the novel. Even though Gary's views on feminism are complex and contradictory, since he wrote the novel during the Feminist art movement, society's shift in ideologies and female perspective influences the voice he gives his female characters, like Mme Rosa ("Romain Gary"). Like Morrison, Gary illustrates the hardships and sacrifices mothers and mother-figures make to help their children. Madame Rosa takes care of the disregarded children born to prostitution, protecting and defending them like her own: "Madame Rosa said the law of the jungle was better than our laws, and it was even dangerous to adopt a kid. If the real mother wants to come and torture [Momo] later on because he is happy, she has got the law on her side" (Gary 41). While these children are not biologically her own, she endures hardships and protects them as if they were hers. Discussing how the law is on her side demonstrates her willingness to fight for these children. Just as Sethe wants to protect her kids. Gary paints Madame Rosa as a very dependable, strong, and caring woman despite all her challenges in life. Through this, she alters the narrative and highlights the strength and dedication of mothers. Like these authors, the artists during the Feminist Art Movement pushed boundaries that were unheard of and made these women's voices truly heard. Dominated by men, the art world would portray women through a sexual lens that innately dehumanized them (Grimes). The artist, Chicago, was a leading figure in this movement. She helped bring many women together to create her screen-printed masterpieces.

The piece above is a part of Chicago's art show called the "Birth Project", which is a series of screen prints and needlework done by over 150 female needleworkers. Named "Born Again," this piece made by Chicago and the other female artists explores the relationship between gender, femaleness, maternity, and motherhood through printing with colorful hues (Thompson). The flowy, waterlike lines connecting the mother figure to the other figures symbolize breast milk, representing the dependence and responsibility mothers have to take care of their children. This element of the print directly relates to Sethe in Beloved, as she sees her milk as a divine substance and a unifying factor between her and her children. The artist purposely does not depict the subject's face to convey the collective and shared experiences of women's struggles with motherhood. By not depicting a clear identity of the mother, it also leaves the idea of a mother figure up for interpretation. Just as Madame Rosa stepped in as a mother figure for Momo. Sethe, Madame Rosa, and the subjects in Chicago's feminist artwork bring minority women out of the shadows and portray them as strong, selfless mothers, depicting their true story. 

Women's strength and resilience through traumatic historical events have often been kept a secret throughout history and swept under the rug. Morrison, Gary, and artist Senga Nengudi present minority female perspectives through Sethe and Madame Rosa, who explore their own individual traumas from historical events like slavery and the Holocaust.  To uncover those stories and better understand their lived experiences through literature and art, society can better understand parts of our world's dark past. Through the character Sethe, Morrison can convey to the reader the hardships and costs of slavery. Describing the traumatic parts of slavery, she says that "slave life had 'busted her legs, back, head, eyes, hands, kidneys, womb and tongue,' she had nothing left to make a living with but her heart, which she put to work at once" (Morrison 102). By giving women a narrative in the story, Morrison is reshaping history to show aspects not documented in history textbooks. Discussing the painful things she has endured shows the strength that she exhibits throughout the novel. It is these characters' very voice that allows them to break out of this system and end slavery through their determination and strength. Like Sethe, Madame Rosa also faces a lot of backlash and trauma as a Holocaust survivor and ex-sex worker. Gary tells the story of Madame Rosa's past through Momo. As Momo grows older and the novel progresses, he begins to realize the severity of her traumas and the challenges she has overcome. Gary also does this intentionally to illustrate how trauma can pass down through generations and can mold identity and relationships. Momo sees Madame Rosa as "old and tired to begin with, and this kind of [incident] was very hard on her, because she had already been persecuted for being Jewish" (Gary 4). In this, Gary shows Momo's interpretation of Madame Rosa as she is upset about the kids shitting everywhere but too tired to do anything because of her long and gruesome past. Through Momo's understanding, we see Madame Rosa's dynamic nature as both an old lady and a fierce survivor. Her role in the novel as a caregiver also demonstrates persistence and the strength to make something better of her life. Like Morrison and Gary, American visual artist and curator Nungudi also explores resilience through past traumas through her sculptural displays. Nungudi creates dynamic pieces from pantyhose that explore themes of resilience and coping with the aftermath of traumatic historical events (Hart).

This piece above is called Flesh and Gender Identity and visually displays many of the themes present in both Beloved and The Life Before Us. The sculpture is presented in the corner of the room to show the neglect of many minority groups during traumatic historical events and how their stories get pushed to the side. This idea is shown in Madame Rosa's life as she feels the need to hide in the basement to be safe, indicating that she still does not feel accepted in society and that she needs to keep her life hidden. Through the artist's use of pantyhose, Nengudi makes her work relatable to women by using an article of clothing generally specific to women. By stretching the pantyhose, she shows how women are overworked and weighed down because of the sexism they face. The tension of the piece shows the pantyhose trying to stay off the ground, representing women's resistance to dehumanizing historical events like slavery and the Holocaust (Hart). Morrison, Gary, and Nengudi bring these hidden stories out of the corner and shine a light on the perspectives of minority women that reshape history. 

Morrison, Gary, and American artist Mary Beth Edelson all challenge the audience in different ways to see beyond the erotic perception from men and show the women's true strength and perseverance in changing the narrative. The Feminist art movement's most significant shift was away from the sexual lens of women perpetrated by men ("Feminist Art"). Through her storytelling, Morrison shows the dehumanization of this sexual lens through the character Sethe as she is sexually assaulted and has her breast milk stolen. By sharing the perspective and the trauma Sethe has experienced from this assault, Morrison changes the narrative from a sexual viewpoint to sorrow and sadness as she shows the true aftermath of these actions. Denver watches Sethe finally open up about her trauma, and she witnesses, "fifteen minutes later, after telling [Paul D] about her stolen milk, her mother wept as well. Behind [Sethe], bending down, [Paul D's] body an arc of kindness, he held her breasts in the palm of his hands" (Morrison 20). For Sethe, having her milk stolen is one of the most personal ways to attack her because it is such a big part of her and her children's connection. Morrison exemplifies the display of her emotions as her trauma resurfaces when talking to Paul D. By doing this, she shows the horrendous effects this sexual ideology has on women. Like in Beloved, Madame Rosa has to deal with the sexualization of women, but from a different viewpoint. Women who sexualize themselves. In the novel, prostitution is a big part of many of the characters' lives. Madame Rosa's job is to look after the neglected offspring of prostitute mothers, but she herself was once a prostitute. Momo catches Madame Rosa in a moment of reflection: "her whole past came back to her. [Madame Rosa] was naked in the middle of the room, dressing to go out and peddle her ass like in the old days… She was so densely made up that the rest of her looked even more naked" (Gary 104-105). Momo sees a new side of Madame Rosa that brings up many feelings of discontentment as she unveils an unseen part of the past. While in Beloved, Sethe did not do anything to lead to her sexualization, Madame Rosa plays into male fantasies at a time of deep insecurity and helplessness. The Feminist art movement worked to challenge the world's erotic viewpoint on women, and shift it to put women in charge and allow them to share their own story. A great pioneer in the Feminist Art Movement was Edelson. Much of her work focuses on mothers and their children, but she always has a careful, underlying concentration on how she depicts women.

Her work above, titled "The Fury of the Mother Whose Child has Been Taken," is an excellent example of this. In this piece, Edelson uses her own nude body as the subject to reclaim the idea of the female form from its interpretation under the male gaze (Bradley). The technique she is using is called Photomontage, which is the process of drawing and adding other photographs to a preexisting picture. Through this, she can dramatize the themes of rage and containment from the male gaze. The red lines coming from the mouth of the woman on the left suggest a silenced cry and a desire for people to hear her voice. This connection is shown in Beloved as Sethe attempts to tell Paul D about her stolen milk and finally lets out her suppressed trauma and breaks down into tears. Both Morrison and Edelson reframe the sexual intention men have to show the genuine sorrow and rage it causes women. On the right side of Edelson's diptych, the yellow spirals enclosing her body suggest entrapment and suffocation. This symbol could represent some of the internal conflict we see with Madame Rosa as she is dealing with her past life of prostitution. The spiral shows how Madame Rosa's past as a prostitute still encircles her life to this day. No matter how far she is from it. Through Madame Rosa's makeup and sexual performances, Gary shows the tension of power choice and suffocation in adjusting to men's wants and desires. Through challenging the audience in different ways to see beyond the erotic perception from men, Morrison, Gary, and Edelson each show women's true strength and perseverance in changing the narrative and making it their own. 

Girls, women, and old ladies all deserve a voice just as much as their male counterparts. By painting, writing, and expressing female perspectives, the world can evolve to be more inclusive and accurate in representation. However, these artists and writers are only taking the first step. It is up to society to educate and interpret these perspectives to make sure women's voices are not erased and marginalized, but instead a fundamental part of our world. Only then can their voices truly help shape our world, regardless of their gender.  

Works Cited

Bradley, Kimberly. "'Powerful and Fierce': How Mary Beth Edelson Finally Found Her Place in the Canon." Art Basel, www.artbasel.com/stories/mary-beth-edelson-david-lewis.

"Feminist Art." The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/terms/feminist-art. Accessed 23 Sept. 2025.

Gary, Romain. The Life Before Us. New Directions Paperbook, 2022.

Grimes, Adrianna. "1970s Art History Kick Started the Contemporary Art Movement." From the Faraway nearby, 26 Jan. 2022, farawaynearby.substack.com/p/1970s-art-history-kick-started-the. Accessed 23 Sept. 2025.

Hart, Rebecca. "The Black Arts Movement and Senga Nengudi." Denver Art Museum, www.denverartmuseum.org/en/blog/black-arts-movement-senga-nengudi.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York City, Vintage International, 2004.

"Romain Gary." Wikipedia, 13 Sept. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Gary. Accessed 23 Sept. 2025.

Thompson-Wylder, Viki D. "Judy Chicago's Birth Project: Born Again." The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, gallery.stkate.edu/exhibition/judy-chicagos-birth-project-born-again.