Sethe's Decision In Beloved

Every day, people make decisions that are either right or wrong. After reading the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, it is fair to say that Sethe’s decision on killing her baby Beloved was a reasonable decision. The first thing that comes to mind when finding out that Sethe killed her own child is disturbing and the reader immediately thinks that is very wrong and not okay, but the reader can’t just instantly think that if you do nott give it deep thought on why exactly she did what she did. To be brief, the reasons for which I strongly believe that Sethe’s decision was the right thing to do are she didn’t want her children to go through the suffering of experiencing slavery. Not only that, but there’s a difference between a mother killing a

Sethe was kept working hard labor she was trapped in this small place and never got to see and experience everything beyond the land she was kept on. Sethe was naive and clueless on how to properly take care of her children. For example, in the novel Beloved the text says, “‘My woman? You mean my mother? If she did, I don't remember. I didn't see her but a few times out in the fields and once when she was working indigo. By the time I woke up in the morning, she was in line. If the moon was bright they worked by its light. Sunday she slept like a stick. She must of nursed me two or three weeks--that's the way the others did. Then she went back in rice and I sucked from another woman whose job it was. So to answer you, no. I reckon not. She never fixed my hair nor nothing. She didn't even sleep in the same cabin most nights I remember. Too far from the line-up, I guess’ (Morrison 36).” In summary, Sethe never had her mom around when she was growing up. Having a mom is very important in the process of growing up because mothers teach you how to care and love others. This is significant because Sethe, not being able to have her mother around as a child meant that she didn’t learn how to care for others. She just knew that it was tough to spend time with family and that they would always end up separated or losing each other. That is why I state once again that it was understandable why she killed Beloved because on one hand she did not know how to properly care for her children and she was going to end up losing Beloved in a very disturbing way anyhow. To support my claim further, the text also states, “‘I wish I'd a known more, but, like I say, there wasn't nobody to talk to. Woman, I mean. So I tried to recollect what I'd seen back where I was before Sweet Home. How the women did there. Oh they knew all about it. How to