Toni Morrison's Beloved: Sethe, A Brave Mother In Love, Or Is She Selfish In Her Weakness?
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Toni Morrison’s, Beloved, is a complex narrative about the love between mothers and daughters, and the agony of guilt. “ It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave.” These are the words, of Toni Morrison, used to describe the actions of Sethe, the central character in the novel. She, a former slave, chooses to kill her baby girl rather then let her live a life in slavery. In preventing her from the physical and emotional horrors of slavery, Sethe has put herself in to a realm of physical and emotional pain: guilt. And in understanding her guilt we can start to conceive her motivations for killing her third nameless child. Did Beloved’s death ...
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for her baby’s death. Does she do this because she is selfishness or because it need not be justified? Sethe’s love is clearly displayed by sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet, Sethe refuses to acknowledge that her show of compassion is also murder.
Throughout the work, seems to have two separate identities, which affect her actions. When reunited with Paul D., Sethe recalls her reactions to School Teacher’s arrival with no mention to her daughter’s death. “Oh, no. I wasn’t going back there [Sweet Home]. I went to jail instead” (42) Sethe believes she made a moral stand in not letting herself be taken into custody. In her statement she has done two things, she has disassociated herself from the act, and also morally justified what had happened. When Paul D, upon finding out what had really happened, confronts Sethe. She again ignores the issue. “…So when I got here, even before they let me get out of bed, I stitched her a little something… all I’m saying is that it is a ...
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Sethe’s mother “went back in rice and [Sethe] sucked from an other woman whose job it was” (60). Sethe and her mother never had the intimate bond between mother and daughter, therefore Sethe was hollow inside. It wasn’t until she had her own children that life and love filled within her. Sethe’s children were her life lines, and she needed them to survive. But Sethe was not going to live her life in shackles, so she could not let her children do so. The only way to be prevented from going back into slavery would be to end her life, and she did through her daughter, Beloved. Beloved was Sethe. This nameless child, who was buried under the headstone “Beloved,” was christened on her burial. ...
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Toni Morrison's Beloved: Sethe, A Brave Mother In Love, Or Is She Selfish In Her Weakness?. (2008, February 29). Retrieved April 18, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-Sethe-Brave-Mother/79797
"Toni Morrison's Beloved: Sethe, A Brave Mother In Love, Or Is She Selfish In Her Weakness?." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 29 Feb. 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-Sethe-Brave-Mother/79797>
"Toni Morrison's Beloved: Sethe, A Brave Mother In Love, Or Is She Selfish In Her Weakness?." Essayworld.com. February 29, 2008. Accessed April 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-Sethe-Brave-Mother/79797.
"Toni Morrison's Beloved: Sethe, A Brave Mother In Love, Or Is She Selfish In Her Weakness?." Essayworld.com. February 29, 2008. Accessed April 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-Sethe-Brave-Mother/79797.
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