Is Sethe Justified In Sweet Home

Although this event is repeated several times, it is never repeated for the some reason or in the same way. We go from meeting Amy before Denver is born, to the actual birth on the boat, and finally the story of naming the baby after she is born. This sequence of events, and the use of the story over and over again, show its significance in Sethe’s life so far. Not only was it the start of a wonderful relationship with her daughter, but it was also the start of some pretty horrible memories. This is referring to Sethe’s sudden urge to try to kill her children as protection from future slavery. While she thought this was a good idea at the time, it turned out to be yet another horrible memory in her life. Using this story a number of times in the text shows the overbearing weight Sethe must carry with this

In Sethe’s perspective when it came to whether or not she should kill her kids or have herself and her children all go back to Sweet Home, she rather kill them before they have the chance to become slaves based off of the past experiences she had as a slave. In Sethe’s view, “I told Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows there still” (17). This means that not only was Sethe violated by boys but she was also whipped hard enough on her back to cause scarring that resembles a tree. In the novel the word “tree” symbolizes her unpleasant past. For example the tree-shaped scar on her back and back at Sweet Home there would be dead slaves hanging on trees. Another example of Sethe’s past experiences was her getting violated being a sex slave. According to Sethe, “After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for.” Morrison’s point is that slaves are not seen as human. This is important because slaves were seen as property like animals. For instance, the boys take Sethe’s breastfeeding milk as if she were a cow. In Sethe’s words, “Where I was before I came here, that place is real. It’s never going away. Even if the whole farm--every tree and grass blade of it dies. The picture is still there and what's

Sethe says she believes she won't even have to explain her motives for killing her (a love so great she can't let her be taken into a life of slavery). "I don't have to remember nothing," Sethe tells herself on page 183. "I don't even have to explain. She understands it all." Sethe believes the one true way she will find restitution and understanding with Beloved, is by knowing the mark she has left on her daughter. "I only need to know one thing. How bad is the scar?" Sethe feels that by knowing the scar, by touching the "memory of a smile under her chin," she can feel her daughter's pain and connect with her.

Stamp Paid, a former slave who ferries Sethe and Denver across the Ohio River, tried to take Beloved’s corpse from the mother’s clinging hands and give Denver to her. A mother killing her own child is an act that subverts the natural order of the world. A mother is expected to create life, not destroy it, but with Sethe’s case, she was insane and out of control at that specific moment when she imagined that her child might face the same assault in future. Thus, she prefers to put an end to this situation. On the other hand, we notice that she was very anxious about the feeling of Beloved, her murdered child. She stated, “Do you forgive me? Will you stay? You safe here now”

One may argue that she does not display much emotion while killing her children, she unquestionably resembles a lunatic. Without this vital scene, Beloved would lack the utterly shocking element that such violence provides. People want to immerse themselves into stories about lunatics, emerge in the drama, and sympathize with the dire pain Sethe feels. Violent scenes, among other elements, allow for this to occur in a novel.

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.

Sethe understands that her history, filled with the pain of slavery, grief over losing her children, and guilt over Beloved's death, and tries to hide from all the anguish. However, she admits that the past seems to "always be there waiting," thereby emphasizing the idea that past horrors of life continue to haunt forever. It appears as though the power of her experience in slavery influences her so greatly that the memory triggers great pain, causing the horrifying incidents to "happen again." Even though Sethe understands that she cannot ever fully escape her history as it will come back to trouble her, she still tries to avoid them and thus attempts to shield her daughter from the horrors of history: "As for Denver, the job Sethe had of keeping her from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered" (45). It seems as though Sethe tries to deny the fact that history does not simply disappear. She still tries to protect Denver "from the past" even though history "waits," prepared to cause trouble and inflict the pain Sethe tries to repress. It appears as though Sethe continuously tries to fight against her memories and ignore her past in part one. For example, after she wakes, she begins "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start the day's

Members of court today I Ralph Waldo Emerson come to you to shed light on the courageous actions of Sethe. Many of you have expressed your concern of the horrific decision she made but I am here to tell you that one must not be so quick to assume the outcome for this victimized individual. Madam Sethe decided to murder her children because of an appalling institution, which attacks people of African descent. You all have concluded that these actions were

Sethe lives in the shadow of her act of infanticide throughout the entire length of the book. This is because its legacy pervades itself throughout the entire novel, showing events leading up, and ways the future has been affected. The novel begins as such: “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. (Page 1)” This baby refers to Beloved, who became a ghostly presence in Sethe’s house and continuously terrorizes the house

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

Her community shuns her, and even a trusted friend like Paul D says “What you did was wrong, Sethe.” (Morrison 194) Margaret Garner was provided with sympathy and support from her enslaved community that recognized her desperation and fear, and outsiders that were inspired by the tragedy of her case. Sethe’s peers share her experiences with slavery, but are less compassionate in their response. She was isolated from her neighbors because she killed Beloved. The act was seen as a sort of betrayal to the community in which no one is left behind, even if they knew her circumstances. The trauma behind the crime was acknowledged, but not understood. Both Margaret Garner and Sethe experience immense stress in the aftermath of their daughter’s death, as people question whether or not what they did was right and challenge why they committed the crime to begin

Sethe’s life has always been difficult because she was born from a slave; therefore, she had to work as a slave from the moment she was mature enough to. The highest peak of inhumanity that she has ever faced was when she had to lose her first daughter, Beloved. Having the

Her healing actions toward Sethe, not only gives Sethe the physical strength to go on, but the restoration of self-worth and dignity.

 Sethe learned the value of motherhood from an early age.  Not wanting the children of the white men that raped her, Sethe?s mother, Ma?am (as she is called in the book), threw all the unwanted children away.  But, Sethe?s father was a black man whom Ma?am loved, and so she kept Sethe.  Recalling the story, Sethe thinks back on what Nan (the woman who knew Sethe?s mother and raised Sethe, herself) said, ?She threw them all away but you.  The one from the crew she threw away on the island.  The others from more whites she also threw away.  Without names, she threw them.  You she gave the name of the black man? (Morrison, 62).  Thus having an identity because of her mother, ?Sethe learns Ma?am?s history and grounds her personality in motherly-love? (Kubitcheck 123).  Kubitcheck also says, ?mother-love offers the strongest defense against slavery.  When Nan tells Sethe that her Ma?am chose to conceive and bear her, Sethe acquires the base on which to build feelings of self-worth? (135).  She could also identify with her mother by the mark branded below Ma?am?s

“She must have nursed me two or three weeks---that’s the way the others did (pg 73).” Again here we see how milk to a child is important to Sethe because it is the only interaction that she had with her daughter Beloved and her nameless mother. Even though Sethe tries to understand and cope with the past, Beloved generates a metamorphosis in Sethe that allows her to speak what she had thought to be the unspeakable.