In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, the main character Sethe is a mother, the mother of 4 children before the age of 20. She is a valiant defender of her children, and they are the reason for her flight from slavery. One of the most chilling sections of the book is the scene of Sethe in the woodshed when she kills Beloved while the rest of her children were in the shed with her. Her fear over her children being taken into slavery was so powerful that she is willing to kill them rather than them being taken into bondage.
This is a testament to both the insanity and inhumanity of slavery as well as the power of a mother's love. When explaining the emotions during the arrival of the slave catchers, everything is described in a whirlwind of movement, Sethe's actions simply a defense mechanism. Everything she holds dear to her is grabbed in the moments of panic, everything she holds dear being her children. Later she defends her actions to Paul D, saying that she did what she had to in the moment and, keeping her children from slavery was her only priority.
Even though Howard and Bulgar, and Beloved a little bit, had lived in slavery, none of them were old enough to fully grasp the worst parts of it. Everything Sethe does is for the safety of her children, what she believes will be the best thing possible for them. The choice to try to kill them was not even so much a choice as an instinct to protect them from what Sethe knew to be the worst thing possible.
It is surprising to me that the entire community shuns Sethe after the incident in the woodshed because some of them were definitely mothers and as many of them had lived in slavery I would have thought that they would defend Sethe.
Motherly love may be dangerous, but it is the mother's duty to keep her children safe and that will come before everything.
I agree, motherly love can be quite dangerous. From a first world, twenty-first century perspective, the extent of Sethe's maternal love seems overly extreme. However, from Morrison's depiction of slavery, I can begin to understand why Sethe was not insane when she attempted to kill her own child. But perhaps the other ex-slaves shunning sends a different message. Maybe Sethe's act of love really is too extreme and was widely considered an immoral act during that time as well.
ReplyDeleteI now see to what Paul D says when a slave should not love to much because it is dangerous. I'm not surprised that the rest of the community didn't initially support Sethe because like Paul D most of them must keep their feelings in a tin tobacco box. However, I was surprised that they didn't come to understand what she did. 16 or 18 years and they still continued to shun her. Perhaps its because of the ghost that haunts the house or perhaps they are in denial and not willing to open their tin heart.
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