Analysis Of Sethe In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Sethe, in the novel, originally rejects the community around her. This is for the reason that she went to prison for killing her daughter in the woodshed, and she was rejected by the community in the newspaper. Even so, the community eventually saves Sethe from Beloved’s manipulation. With that in mind, Sethe rebels against the common social nature and expected behaviors of females. She lives alone with her daughter, Denver, and she does not appear to have any close female friends. She rejects the need for socialization that many females have. This may be due to the fact that she fears reliving her past experiences and possibly having even worse situations take place. Overall, Sethe appears to keep her distance from others in order to protect

One could argue that she does so, because during the time of slavery, women were often mistreated by society regardless of whether or not they were colored. For example, Mary Jane Suero Elliott targets concepts attached to slavery and self-definition in this quote of her’s, “although the end of slavery signals the beginning of a ‘post’ colonial period for African Americans, their status continues to be defined by slavery 's colonial ideologies” (181). She goes on to explain that the perception of slaves when internalized, results in a never-ending struggle to develop an empowered sense of self. Sethe, unlike a woman that has embraced norms that would normally be practiced, functions alone. Still, she has a self-empowering attitude, and she appears to be more comfortable with her lonely lifestyle than one of slavery. Moreover, she threatens men in order to create a secure sense of self. For instance, when Paul D mentions how Halle saw her get raped, she says, “If he is alive, and saw that [the rape], he won’t step foot in my door. Not Halle” (82). Her actions, much like that of Baby Suggs and Denver, highlight her power in the

Morrison stresses this idea of reliving the experience of slavery when Mr. Bodwin and Denver enter Sethe’s yard upon exorcising Beloved from her life. At this time, Sethe believes Mr. Bodwin is schoolteacher, and she feels that he is going to treat her the same way schoolteacher did back at Sweet Home. With that, Morrison appears to be deconstructing concepts of common family structure and brokenness of slave families in her novel by having Mr. Bodwin function as a bad subject that removes Denver from her life. Denver, after working for Mr. Bodwin, ultimately becomes a mother for herself, for she ends up providing for herself without much assistance. She simply crosses over to a side that Sethe associates with