One of Beloved's themes is maternal love. We get to see some controversial actions that Sethe believes is based on her love for her children. Sethe kills her first born daughter and attempts to kill her other children. She couldn't deal with her children being slaves, so she had to try her best to avoid that situation. By sacrificing her children, she sacrificed her meaning to live. What Sethe did was purely for the betterment of her kids' lives, however controversial it may be. Paul D couldn't understand this because of his lack of maternal love and his lack of understanding of Sethe's situation.
Additionally, her anger at the men who stole her breast milk stems from her love of her children. Sethe's milk was one thing that Sethe could provide to feed her kids. When the men stole that from her, she was unable to give her children the best possible food they could get. Her anger was probably more because of her inability to take care of her kids rather than the men assaulting her.
I think it is important that you mentioned the fact that Paul D could not understand Sethe's actions. Only Sethe could feel that the fear of her kids being enslaved was greater than the fear of death.
ReplyDeleteI thought her reaction of man taking her milk was more angry for not abling to provide milk to her children rather than for her being assaulted. That brings question, how many times and how often she was assaulted before? Why the actual act did not make her angry but the stolen milk?
ReplyDeleteI agree to a certain extent. I do think that Sethe had good intentions, but death is not the best solution to escaping a situation. I do agree very much with your statement about Paul D not understanding, however. That seems to be its own theme throughout the book.
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