Essay On Feminism In Beloved And The Yellow Wallpaper

In the book Sethe states, "When I put that headstone up I wanted to lay in there with you, put your head on my shoulder and keep you warm, and I would have if Buglar and Howard and Denver didn't need me, because my mind was homeless then." (241) I can't even begin to imagine the tremendous amount of pain she felt when murdering her first child. As the story goes on Sethe is blinded by love and grants Beloved's every desire. Beloved would consume every resource they had to the max and she wouldn't care if her mother or sister ate, "But the pain was unbearable when they ran low on food, and Denver watched her mother go without-pick-eating around the edges of the table and stove: the hominy that stuck on the bottom; the crusts and rinds and peelings of things." (285) Sethe was practically eating the little bit of leftovers Beloved left behind whole Denver starved. Denver has grown up to be an only child ever since Howard & Buglar ran away. So when she met Beloved she automatically got attached and poured all her love into her until she decided she had enough. One day she decided to get out of the house and seek for

Rather than tell Sethe with words that trying to kill her children was inhuman, Paul D uses numbers: "You got two feet, Sethe, not four" (165). There are thirty women that arrive to remove Beloved. Thirty is a symbol of justice and order, according to Marianne Schimmel. When schoolteacher arrives with his party, they are described as "the four horsemen" (148). In fact, the only time a number occurs by itself as a sentence is to describe them: "All the while it was coming down the road. Four. Riding close together, bunched-up like, and righteous" (157). Each of these is a powerful symbol, though none of these numbers recur in the text, at least not with these meanings.

Sethe divulged to Paul D the catastrophic events that caused her to run away from Sweet Home, and then she surrendered her sons and daughter to a woman in a wagon because she was worried about the family’s future under the Schoolteacher’s reign. Her description of the assault was straight forward. She told Paul D and very succinctly the roughness and cruelty of those white people especially the two white boys who beat her while she was pregnant with Denver injuring her so badly that her back skin had been dead for years. She refers to the situation as

Paul D then leaves 124 and with him goes all sense of harmony. Sethe begins to believe that Beloved is the ghost of her daughter and complies to her every wish out of guilt. Denver recognizes that Beloved is taking over Sethe’s life and gathers those in their community and together they rid 124 of Beloved. The novel finishes with Denver as a part of the community and Sethe and Paul D together, with no memory of

When Sethe first meets Beloved, she welcomes her with a suspiciously large magnitude. Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe never revealed her past experiences to Denver, yet the moment Beloved asks about her lost earrings, it was “the first time she had heard anything about her(Sethe’s) mother’s mother”(61). This proves that Beloved, and not anyone else, is pulling Sethe to the past, by making her recollect of her days as a slave. In addition,“it is clear why she holds on to you(Sethe), but I just can’t see why you holding on to her,” Paul mentioned(67). This shows how Paul realizes that Sethe has taken in Beloved without much reasoning, and when Beloved hums a song that Sethe happened to make up, Sethe fully but blindly embraces Beloved as family. In fact, she “had gone to bed smiling,” anxious to “unravel the proof for the conclusion she had already leapt to”(181). This shows how consumed by Beloved she is.

The thing that is strikingly similar between Paul D and Ella is that they both did not have children. They had not been able to experience the joy that Sethe had from having her children in her life. They both were too scared to love, so they could not possibly realize how traumatic it was for Sethe to even have to use the option of murder. Sethe is a loving mother. She knew that her children would suffer the hardships that slavery brought, and refuse to let them see that terrible world. The world of slavery was so tormenting for her that she needs to repress the memories as much as possible. It may seem that the choice she was making was irrational, but the choice she was making would prevent her children a life of horror. The life of slavery harmed Sethe’s emotional, mental, and physical state for the rest of the time they live. This is why Sethe always chose to repress the memories of her past because they did nothing but devastate her. Especially, considering that her children were not even teenagers when Schoolteacher attempts to force them into slavery and if he had been successful enduring those hardships would break

For the record, feminism by definition is: ‘the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.’ It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes. (Watson 1)

hand. With the other he touches her face, ‘You your best thing, Sethe. You are.’ His holding fingers are holding hers. ‘Me? Me?’” (273). Paul D helps Sethe realize that she needs become fixated on how she can move on from Beloved—the invader. The phrase, “we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow” is Paul D’s acknowledgement of their tortuous past, and their need to create a future. The line convinces Sethe to overcome the freezing of time she experiences. Most importantly, Paul D’s claim that Sethe is her “best thing”, not Beloved, is what ultimately continues time for Sethe. Before Paul D, Sethe sacrificed her entire livelihood for Beloved. Denver even claims that she could no longer tell the difference between the

For Sethe, to love also becomes a testament of freedom. For having been owned by others (like Acker’s patriarchy) meant that her claim to love was not her own. She could not love her children, "love ‘em proper in Kentucky because they wasn’t [hers] to love" (Beloved 162). Paul D understands that "to get a place where you could love anything you choose … well now that was freedom" (Beloved 162), but he is also bound to his slave mentality to overcome his fear. He considers Sethe’s unconditional love "risky": "For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love" (Beloved 45). The far safer way was "to love just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one" (Beloved 45). It is this compromised love that even Baby Suggs accepted – despite her magnificent sermon in the Clearing on loving one’s self – knowing that her slave master would take her children away. And it is this "weak love" that Paul D tells Sethe she must accept (a patriarchal love, as Acker

Through character development, the story also portrays the theme of escaping the past. Sethe’s actions are influenced heavily by her dead child, Beloved. When the “human” form of Beloved arrives while sleeping

Feminism is the belief that people of all different backgrounds should be treated justly and fairly. Feminists believe that all people deserve equal pay to those in the same job. Otherwise put, “Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism.” (EKU “What is Feminism?”) Such as, if a man in the same job doing the same things as a woman in that same job, they should be treated as equals. They should both earn the same amount of money for the job that they do. However, the wage gap is pushing this away from well-working women. If a man earns one dollar, a woman today earns just seventy-nine cents. This is unacceptable in many ways. Women are no different from men. They both can be hardworking and loyal employees. Sexism in the workplace is pushing single mothers and women back farther to being able to support themselves and support their families.

She then slits her two-year old daughters throat and leave her for dead. This child would later be knowns as “Beloved.” In her own words, Sethe says “If I hadn’t killed her, she would’ve died.” While Paul D and the others people in the neighborhood this act to be heinous and unjustified, Sethe is actually showering her child with so much love. I believe that she loved Beloved so much that she was willing to take her life in order for her to be at peace.

Sethe begins to nurture her children, only for her children to have a growing fear that Sethe would kill them one day, enacting her children to distance themselves. Due to Sethe mother’s abandonment, Sethe in fact has never been a “daughter” and the love she displays, Paul D. describes as “too thick” (193) causes resentment from her children. As Sethe undergoes mental and physical abuse from Beloved, causing her strong personality to wither away and becoming fully dependent on Beloved, Sethe gives herself to Beloved, “[a]nything she wanted she got” (283). This is a story not to be passed on for Sethe, she allowed herself to be swallowed up by her own inability to move past her dreadful memories at Sweet Home. The past, “Beloved” began to slowly creep on her, draining away the strong woman she once was. Sethe always tried to nurture her child, the way her mother never nurtured her. However, in the end when she becomes dependent on Beloved, she becomes old and weak. Yet, her positive development occurs when Paul D tells her that she, herself is the most important thing and finally then Sethe moves on.

Finally, Paul D's recommendation that he get Sethe pregnant uncovers his want to divert his consideration from the past to what's to come. He has been agonizing over his masculinity and has been tormented by the revile Beloved appears to have thrown over him. When he shocks himself by disclosing to Sethe that he needs her to have a child with him, he chooses retroactively that an infant would be the ideal "arrangement: an approach to clutch her, archive his masculinity and break out of the young lady's spell—across the board." But Sethe feels she has officially paid too high a cost for parenthood. She has officially lost three youngsters and does not have any desire to have another, exclusive to see it, as well, flee or be taken from her. Sethe

This leaves us to wonder about the kind of love Denver and Beloved have for each other and their mother. In some instances, it seems as though Beloved partly lives through Denver, and it makes for a special connection between them. Early in the novel, Beloved returns as a supernatural being and seems to be vulgar and aggressive, which would definitely seem reasonable as the baby that Sethe killed. Later though, we meet what seems to be the reincarnation of the baby killed 18 years ago as a girl. Beloved seems to be loving, but is there a secret side to her? It is believed by Denver that Beloved was the one that choked Sethe. Is Beloved here to rekindle a lost relationship with her mother or to return the favor? Beloved’s aggressiveness is described in the scene with Paul D where she pushes Paul D into “Touching her inside.” This scene was very uncomfortable as Paul D can’t even hear Beloved’s footsteps. Paul D pleads for Beloved to leave, and she says she’ll leave if he does what she wants. Beloved seems possessive and jealous because she wants Sethe all to herself, and she wants Paul D out of the way. This brings us back to the question, what does Beloved really want? There are two possibilities one indicating a rekindling of love and the other a need for revenge against Sethe. When we look at Denver, she seems to be a lot younger than she actually is. She is shy to the world outside of 124, their house. She becomes very jealous when Paul D comes into 124 and becomes such a big part of Sethe’s life. She begins to act very jealous towards him and views him as a threat to her love for her mother. As time goes on, Denver finally starts to develop a maturity and someday wants to attend Oberlin College. Her love becomes one of a daughter that is very close to her mother. This is apparent when others try to become part of Sethe’s