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“Mothers are all slightly insane.” This quote by acclaimed American writer J.D. Salinger accurately describes the nature of all mothers. The innate nature of mothers to be insane, or to think without logic or reason is vividly displayed in Toni Morrison’s Beloved through the protagonist Sethe. Sethe, an Ohio infanticide, displays loving traits throughout Beloved, and often leads the reader to question her motivations behind the killing of her child, Beloved. The reader is never truly delivered an exact reasoning behind Sethe’s infanticide, but Morrison has recurring elements that help chain together anachronistic events in pursuit of aiding the reader to build his/her own reasoning. Morrison uses Sethe’s milk and the recurring element of forgiveness to craft a story that exemplifies the insanity associated with responsibilities of a mother, while retaining ambiguity associated with the morality of “motherly” infanticide.
A reader might typically associate milk with being a nourishing organic substance shared between a mother and her children, but Morrison uses milk as a deeper bond between characters. Milk is first used as an image in Sethe's recollection of being punished for running away from Sweet Home. Conversationally recollecting the events with Paul D, Sethe exclaims “After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk...And they took my milk...and they took my milk!” (Morrison 32-33). It can be concluded that, because milk is a natural and replenished substance, Sethe must have a deeper grievance with the stealing of her milk than its physical loss. When they "took her milk" they were really taking away part of her maternity, and Sethe was most upset about not being able to cater to her baby's needs at the hands of...
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...he remembers Sethe, she never forgot Sethe, but she avoids answering the questions in regards to forgiveness by in return, asking, "Where are the men without skin?" (Morrison 409). The ambiguity of forgiveness that remains gives credibility to the motivations behind Sethe's infanticide, because the morality of the actions is never clearly established, and therefore Sethe still retains maternal discretion.
Recurring elements and images in Beloved are vital to upholding a general theme or message, or at least to reinforce a general idea. Morrison never clearly justifies the morality of Sethe's actions, but in introducing recurring elements and images, gives the reader the tools to do so. Though many other themes and motifs exist in beloved, milk and forgiveness stand out in developing the character of Sethe, to equip the reader to analyze the morality of her actions.
Toward the end of Beloved, Toni Morrison must have Sethe explain herself to Paul D, knowing it could ruin their relationship and cause her to be left alone again. With the sentence, “Sethe knew that the circle she was making around the room, him, the subject, would remain one,” Morrison catches the reader in a downward spiral as the items around which Sethe makes her circles become smaller in technical size, but larger in significance. The circle traps the reader as it has caught Sethe, and even though there are mental and literal circles present, they all form together into one, pulling the reader into the pain and fear Sethe feels in the moment. Sethe is literally circling the room, which causes her to circle Paul D as well, but the weight
In the story of Beloved, Toni Morrison conveys many examples of symbolism to provide greater details about the connection between characters and their state of mind. Objects such as milk, colors such as red, and even characters such as Beloved play a crucial role in establishing a theme of self-forgiveness and rebirth, and give a more in depth description on the suffering and torture that the various characters endured throughout the novel. One of the main examples of symbolism in the novel Beloved is Morrison’s description and presentation of a mother’s milk and the act of nursing. Milk belongs to the mother, but once it is given to the child it makes for a mother-child bond that Morrison weights when describing scenes of breastfeeding between Sethe and her children. Milk in the story can be viewed as a mother’s love for her child, therefore implying that a lack of milk could symbolize abandonment.
Isaac Newton, the famous 18th century physicist, wrote, “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction” (Brainy Quote). Newton was explaining physics, but the principle functions throughout the evolving world that we live in and is a fundamental theme in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Morrison depicts the helplessness of a mother, Sethe, who commits an act of homicide, an act that leads to her living in a world consisting of a strained relationship with her children—that strained relationship being the “reaction” to her horrific act. At the time she commits the crime, Sethe believes that it will provide a safe haven for herself and her children, but that turns out to be far from the reality. In the novel, Sethe’s act of infanticide
“Where does discipline end? Where does cruelty begin? Somewhere between these, thousands of children inhabit a voiceless hell” (Francois Mauriac, Brainyquote 2016). These statements posed by French novelist Francois Mauriac can be applied to Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The novel centers around Sethe, a former African American slave, who lives in rural Cincinnati, Ohio with her daughter named Denver. As the plot progresses, Sethe is confronted with elements of her haunting past: traumatic experiences from her life as a slave, her daunting escape, and the measures she took to keep her family safe from her hellish owner plague Sethe into the present and force her to come to terms with the past. A definitive theme
The relationships Sethe had with her children is crazy at first glance, and still then some after. Sethe being a slave did not want to see her children who she loved go through what she herself had to do. Sethe did not want her children to have their “animal characteristics,” put up on the bored for ...
The scars on Sethe’s back serve as another testament to her disfiguring and dehumanizing years as a slave. Like the ghost, the scars also work as a metaphor for the way that past tragedies affect us psychologically, “haunting” or “scarring” us for life. More specifically, the tree shape formed by the scars might symbolize Sethe’s incomplete family tree. It could also symbolize the burden of existence itself, through an allusion to the “tree of knowledge” from which Adam and Eve ate, initiating their mortality and suffering. Sethe’s “tree” may also offer insight into the empowering abilities of interpretation. In the same way that the white men are able to justify and increase their power over the slaves by “studying” and interpreting them according to their own whims, Amy’s interpretation of Sethe’s mass of ugly scars as a “chokecherry tree” transforms a story of pain and oppression into one of survival.
To begin with, Sethe’s decision on killing her child was reasonable and understanding because she did not want her children to be trapped in the life of being a slave. The reason for which I say that is because according to Morrison’s novel Beloved the text says, “‘I told Baby Suggs that and she got down on her knees to beg God's pardon for me. Still, it's so. My plan was to take us all to the other side where my own ma'am is’ (Morrison 116).” This means that Sethe preferred death over slavery. She had planned to kill her children and then herself as well. Taking away her family’s lives including her own was her only option to escape slavery. All Sethe was trying to do is give her family peace because being stuck as a slave was a very brutal
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
Mock, Michelle. “Spitting out the Seed: Ownership if Mother, Child, Breasts, Milk, and Voice in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” College Literature, Vol. 23, No.3 (Oct, 1996): 117-126. JSTOR. Web. 27. Oct. 2015.
Justifying the Murder in Beloved by Toni Morrison. Beloved is a tale about slavery. The central character is Sethe, who is an escaped slave of the. Sethe kills her child named Beloved to save her. her.
So often, the old adage, "History always repeats itself," rings true due to a failure to truly confront the past, especially when the memory of a period of time sparks profoundly negative emotions ranging from anguish to anger. However, danger lies in failing to recognize history or in the inability to reconcile the mistakes of the past. In her novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the relationship between the past, present and future. Because the horrors of slavery cause so much pain for slaves who endured physical abuse as well as psychological and emotional hardships, former slaves may try to block out the pain, failing to reconcile with their past. However, when Sethe, one of the novel's central characters fails to confront her personal history she still appears plagued by guilt and pain, thus demonstrating its unavoidability. Only when she begins to make steps toward recovery, facing the horrors of her past and reconciling them does she attain any piece of mind. Morrison divides her novel into three parts in order to track and distinguish the three stages of Sethe approach with dealing with her personal history. Through the character development of Sethe, Morrison suggests that in order to live in the present and enjoy the future, it is essential to reconcile the traumas of the past.
Wyatt, Jean. ‘‘Failed Messages, Maternal Loss, and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy.’’ MFS Modern Fiction Studies 58.1 (2012): 128-151. Print.
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love both as a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to proceed; through the experiences of the run-away slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through the comments of Paul D and Ella regarding the motherly love of Sethe towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which evidently promises that the loved one of a slave will be hurt. On the other hand, love is portrayed as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to move on with her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures do not matter due to the fact that she must live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love finally emerges as the prevalent force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life.
Most notably, the infanticide of Beloved haunts her in the appearance of her dead daughter, Beloved. Beloved figuratively and literally consumes Sethe as Beloved “was getting bigger…[while] the flesh between her mother’s forefinger and thumb [faded]. [Denver] saw Sethe’s eyes bright but dead, alert but vacant, paying attention to everything about Beloved” (285). Sethe becomes smaller and less vibrant and her focus is completely centered on Beloved. This consumption indicates “Sethe will not survive her relationship with Beloved – that is, her struggle with her traumatic past – without help from the larger community and Paul D” (Field 10). Until the community helps Sethe, she will constantly be fixated on providing and atoning for her violent actions toward Beloved. In this fight for forgiveness, Sethe reveals why she had to kill
To survive, one must depend on the acceptance and integration of what is past and what is present. In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison carefully constructs events that parallel the way the human mind functions; this serves as a means by which the reader can understand the activity of memory. "Rememory" enables Sethe, the novel's protagonist, to reconstruct her past realities. The vividness that Sethe brings to every moment through recurring images characterizes her understanding of herself. Through rememory, Morrison is able to carry Sethe on a journey from being a woman who identifies herself only with motherhood, to a woman who begins to identify herself as a human being. Morrison glorifies the potential of language, and her faith in the power and construction of words instills trust in her readers that Sethe has claimed ownership of her freed self. The structure of Morrison's novel, which is arranged in trimesters, carries the reader on a mother's journey beginning with the recognition of a haunting "new" presence, then gradually coming to terms with one's fears and reservations, and finally giving birth to a new identity while reclaiming one's own.