Sethe's Love

Sethe barely knew her own mother because of the long hours her mother worked. Although Sethe may find some comfort in knowing that out of all her mother's children, she was the only one given a name and allowed to live, much of Sethe's internal struggle is the result of the unclear relationship with her mother. Sethe's devotion to her children is the result of the suspicion that her mother was trying to escape and abandon Sethe. After her mother was caught and hanged, Sethe was forced to face of the horrors of slavery alone. This betrayal explains Sethe's choices she makes as a mother. She refuses to do the same to her children and risks her life to reach them when they've gone ahead to Ohio so they won't have to be without her. Her ultimate expression of a mother's love is killing her children to save them from slavery. Sethe chooses to free them through death rather than allow them to experience what she endured as a slave.