Finally! I was wondering when the question we were asked on that survey about whether it is acceptable for a mother to kill her child out of love would come up in Beloved (on the survey, I said that this was acceptable). So, let's discuss this!
At the end of part one of Beloved, we learn that Sethe is the one who killed Beloved, and that she intended to kill all of her other children as well. Why did she intend to commit this seemingly horrible act? She decided that it would be kinder to kill her children rather than let them experience the horror of slavery under schoolteacher.
Alright. Was Sethe's attempt to kill her children justifiable? In my opinion, she was. Paul D told Sethe that there could have been another way to save her children, but was there really another way? If they had tried to run from the slavecatchers, they surely would have been caught. No one in their town would be willing to harbor them, considering the town-wide grudge against Baby Suggs and her family after the party that they threw.
When Sethe saw schoolteacher, she realized the truth: there was no way out of her situation, and death was the only option. She loved her children, and decided that after tasting freedom, there was no going back to the unbearable harshness of slavery. According to Sethe, nothing is worse than slavery. Not death, not anything.
But what about the children? Would they want to be killed rather than experience slavery? We never even get their point of view. So can we really say with certainty that a mother is justified in killing their children out of love? Maybe, maybe not.
I think the idea relates to the cliche of "If you love something, then let them free." By killing Beloved, Sethe was pretty much living that. She loves her children far to much than to make them endure the tortures of slavery that she knew too well. I think Sethe is really brave for that.
ReplyDeleteI like how you answered this question without lingering too much on the morality behind it. Looking at it straight on is a unique take on the subject.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder which is worse: a life of misery or slavery. Personally, I think that a life of slavery is worse. The conditions that slaves had to endure were unbearable, to say the least. So I would say that all of the misery caused by slavery is worse than death itself because it also deprives the slave of life itself. Obviously Sethe felt the same way, so she decided to kill her children in an effort to liberate them from the abuse of slavery.
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