Throughout Beloved thus far, we have seen Sethe struggle with trying to put her past behind her. On page 86, she describes "beating back the past" as a daily job. Sethe's deep fear of slavery becomes clearest in chapter 16. The four horsemen- Schoolteacher, his nephew, a slavecatcher, and a sheriff- at the beginning of the chapter allude to the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This allusion is so significant because it demonstrates the meaning slavery holds for Sethe- to go back to a life of enslavement would essentially be the end of the world for her.
This paralyzing fear of slavery is why Sethe kills her own child, an act that many have controversially referred to as an act of motherly love. This action leads the reader to question, "does maternal love have ethical limits?" While of course we can theorize about what we would do in Sethe's situation, we can never know for certain unless we know for ourselves what its like to love your own child so much that you would do anything for them. Sethe's action also demonstrates the true horrors of slavery through the fact that she equates murdering her child with saving her.
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