Cruelty is interesting as an abstract concept. Because what really is cruel? What human do you know that commits cruel acts for the fact of them being cruel? Of course. Nobody does that. They do one of two things:
1) Justify the means with the end. Take Sethe and Beloved for instance. She killed her two year old child because she didn't want her to face a lifetime of cruelty at Sweet Home. So now, we're posed with the question, how much cruelty is allowed to justify the means with the end? Is it worse to kill your child or let them live a lifetime full of cruelty? What if the child were able to escape the lifetime of cruelty that Sethe believed they would have?
2) The person is lying to themselves, or convolution the picture is occurring. Take the institution of slavery itself. Many slave owners saw themselves as benevolent and kind to their slaves, and so now, they weren't cruel, of course not. Simply, they deny the inherent cruelty of slavery as an institution. Why do the slaves of "benevolent" families run away? The inherent truth. In the end, it can't be denied.
3) I lied, there's three. But this would be simply combining the two. So it's two and a half? Sometimes, they accept the inhernecy in a way but continue to justify it with the end. Benevolent slave families again. The inherency of the siutuation is "ok because they're beneveloent." Once again, the truth should come out in the end of it all.
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