Beloved (A Review) Essay, Research Paper

Beloved I decided to delve into the issue of slavery in this novel. SETHE, the mother of Beloved, and was owned by the character Schoolteacher . SETHE had three children by another slave. Schoolteachers sons would take her milk so she couldn t feed her children. She grew tired of this mistreatment so she decided to run away. For the slaves, there was no such thing as justice. They were hung, beaten, and mistreated at will, and never had the oppotunity for retribution. This unbearable treatment was the cause of SETHE attempt to escape. When Schoolteacher came to claim SETHE and her children, she took it upon herself to murder them, so they would not suffer the same fate that she did as a slave. She attempted to apply her own justice, by sentencing her children to what she comprehended as a more merciful fate. Another question comes to mind though. Did she really kill her children to save them from a horrible life? Or did she do it out of her own selfish desire not to reenter into that life of slavery. Paul D. tries to reason with her why she really did it. On page 165

‘What you did was wrong, Sethe.’ ‘I should have gone on back there? Taken my babies back there?’ ‘There could have been a way. Some other way.’ ‘What way?’ ‘You got two feet, Sethe, not four…’ Getting further into the novel, it became apparent that Sethe did truly have a deep love for her children, and she did commit this horrible act for them. It still does not excuse the act. She is proud of what she did, even through the end of the novel. She doesn t seem to accept the fact that she abused the children s rights, in her act of love . I think Paul D. is the one who finally brings out the suggestion to Sethe, that she had indeed overstepped her boundaries as a mother when she killed her children.