Sethe In Beloved

The issues that happened during slavery are often discussed, but not the damage it caused to the psyche of many African-Americans ‘and society as a whole. Slavery is one of America’s biggest sins. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Morrison explores the psychological affects of slavery and how too much motherly love can be destructive. Morrison brings these issues to the forefront through the character of Sethe. Sethe was a runaway slave who reached freedom, but suffered the consequences of never truly being free. Morrison uses supernatural elements to display Sethe’s consequences. She wanted a better life for her children by ¨keeping the past at bay” (Morrison 51), but she ended up doing more harm than good for her children. Slavery warped Sethe’s

Sethe did not think of this as murder, but rather than saving her children from the cruelties of being a slave.

Foster writes, “Beloved is in fact representative of the horrors to which a whole race subjected” (88). Slavery began in the 1600’s when African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia by Europeans for the production of tobacco. Slaves endured a number of horrendous things such as rape, beatings, and dehumanized. Slaves were considered animals instead of human beings. Being a mother was very important to Sethe because it made her feel like a human and her children were all that she had. Although Sethe and her other living children were free from slavery, they suffered from the baby ghost of Setheś deceased child. Morrison based Setheś character on a woman named Margaret Garner, whose case was widely discussed of all fugitive slave cases. Garner was a slave on a plantation in Boone County, Kentucky, in January of 1856 she and her four small children crossed

Being a mother and being a slave did not coexist with one another. Cosca writes, “slaves were dehumanized and objectified¨ (120), many families were torn apart because of slave auctions. Paul D explains how “each time he discovered large families of black people he made them identify over and over who each was, what relation, who, in fact, belonged to who” (Morrison 258). Paul D never experienced what it was like to have a family. Paul D’s lack of family made him very guarded and only made him love things “small and in secret” (Morrison 260). Slave mothers did not see their children again after a slave auction took place. This caused mothers to be overly protective of their children or too scared to develop a relationship with them. Sethe’s love for her children was described as being “too thick” (Morrison 193). Slaves often put their children first before themselves. Sethe’s plantation that she escaped was ironically called Sweet Home, she endured a number of horrendous things, one of them was getting whipped by Schoolteacher and his two boys and getting her milk taken while she was pregnant. Sethe adds emphasis on how they stole her milk, while retelling the story she repeats “And they took my milk!” (Morrison 20). Sethe was more concerned with the theft of her milk than getting beat. This shows how she puts her children first as a mother.