Sethe Killing Beloved

Words: 404

Pages: 2

Open Document

Although a mother killing her own child is a dreadful behavior and something that should not be forgiven, from Sethe’s perspective, killing Beloved represents love and protection from the slave catchers. Sethe murders Beloved because she thinks that killing her daughter with her own hands is better than Beloved being caught by slave catchers and facing slavery. In chapter 18, Sethe is again associated with a bird, but this time with a hummingbird. When she sees the school teacher in the yard, she is nagged by the humming birds as they “stuck their needle beaks right through her head cloth into her hair and beat their wings,” and makes Sethe think, “No. No. Nono. Nonono” (163). This is quite peculiar since humming birds are making Sethe panicked and feared …show more content…
Though Sethe is again compared to a bird, the words ‘simple’ and ‘just’ indicate that there is no violence or aggressive force this time. Sethe being able to ‘just fl[y]’ and take action in a time of chaos also shows how caring Sethe is. Unlike the hawk, hummingbirds are not fearful and not seen as a threat, but represents sweetness and joy in life. When Sethe is trying to gather her children to escape from the slave catcher, Sethe as a hawk “snatch[es] up her children…on the wing” (157). On the other hand, Sethe as a hummingbird “collect[s] every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried…them…where no one could hurt them” (163). The latter description is filled with kindness, love, and warmth; it seems that Sethe is treating her children as they are her treasures. The difference in the tone and languages is very clear between these two descriptions. The fact that one could see these two completely different characteristics in the same person for the same action tells how much Sethe is complex and how much she is effected by

Sethe's Guilt In Beloved

read in the course of the semester. In Chapter 26, Sethe’s love for Beloved begins to harm her. However, Sethe's guilt prompts Beloved to become a needy and demanding child. Nothing, Sethe ever did was enough for Beloved–she just demands more from her mother. As Beloveds power over Sethe grew stronger Sethe began to grow weaker. Weak as though she was back working as a slave. The bigger Beloved (the master) got, the smaller Sethe became. The brighter Beloved's eyes became the more those eyes that…

Words 1017 - Pages 5

Beloved Essay

Nicole Cu Vanessa Velazquez Period 2 English 3 HL Diep 9 November 2014 The Past Haunts In the novel “Beloved”, the author Toni Morrison uses the characters in the book to build on the importance of how the exslaves’ lives are affected by Beloved. The story is based on how the reincarnation of Sethe’s dead baby affects each character in the book. Morrison utilizes that to reflect how each of their perspectives are altered by how their past lives were…

Words 1244 - Pages 5

Denver's Coming of Age in Toni Morrison's Beloved Essay

to recognize her dependence on others and start to rely on herself so that she can become her own person and reach her full potential. Before Beloved, Denver had only left the house a few times and needed someone’s help to do something. As Beloved and Sethe grow closer, Denver has the chance she needs to realize the dangers of reliance on Sethe and Beloved. In order to survive, Denver is forced to fend for herself and become independent for the first time. Denver’s desperation for approval and…

Words 1241 - Pages 5

An Analysis Of Sethe's True Identity In Beloved, By Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, explores the trauma of Sethe’s past life as a slave, which ironically allows her daughter Denver, to find her true identity; representing the historical effects of slavery upon two generations of African Americans. Throughout the novel, Sethe struggles to become a free woman, not physically, but mentally, from the tortures she suffered as a slave. Though during the beginning of the novel, Denver is portrayed as rather childish and immature in order to reflect her mother’s…

Words 930 - Pages 4

TERM PAPER DRAFT

Sethe’s desire to protect her children prompts the anger and discomfort in them and results in destruction upon the family. After Sethe having heard about her master's idea of taking her baby to the south, she ran away with her hoping to protect her oldest and only daughter. Having no other choice she killed her oldest daughter "engraved on her baby's headstone: Dearly Beloved"(Morrison 5). Sethe’s decision to kill beloved reveals her desire to protect her. She doesn't really want her baby to go through slavery the same way she had especially after she…

Words 1158 - Pages 5

Toni Morrison and Beloved Essay

WHAT DOES BELOVED SYMBOLIZE? Issue: Beloved seems to play a large role in taking over Sethe, Denver And Paul D’s lives what could she symbolize, what is her significance? SETHE Issue: Beloved seems to play a large role in taking over Sethe, Denver And Paul D’s lives what could she symbolize, what is her significance? -Memory of her daughter, her soft skin and her breathe smelling like milk -Sethe offers motherly love, in which she spends more time with Beloved, just as if its her own…

Words 1226 - Pages 5

Parenthood In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, for example, depicts Addie, a mother of five living in the Deep South, as somewhat indifferent towards the majority of her children. Toni Morrison’s Beloved portrays Sethe, who is, on the surface, more traditionally maternal in her devotion than Addie,…

Words 1194 - Pages 5

Margaret Garner Postpartum Depression

Rather than see them enslaved again, she murdered her daughter and attempted to do the same to the other children. Garner’s fictional counterpart does the same thing to her children when faced with the possibility of returning to slavery. Sethe and Margaret Garner’s actions towards their children were nothing if not a prolonged and untreated case of Postpartum Psychosis. As a result of their possible post traumatic stress from their inhumane treatment as slaves mixed with their paranoia and…

Words 1355 - Pages 6

Beloved Essay

Diana Golac Beloved Toni Morrison’s Book Beloved is full of symbolism, for example the tree, color even numbers have a more in depth meaning in her book, but one symbol that the book is obviously about is Beloved. Beloved can be a symbol for many different things, but the first has to be a symbol for the pain of the past or painful memories. Throughout the book we see how Beloved tries to help her mother realize her pain from the past in order to move on with the future. She brings even…

Words 294 - Pages 2

Beloved: Fiction and Toni Morrison Essay

S S When reading Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, it is easy to see how readers would question the actions of her characters. Some characters display behavior that would seem barbaric and cruel to the average individual. However, when delving deeper, it is easier to see how the severities of the characters’ actions are built on the psychological repression of their pasts. These pasts are filled with the traumas of slavery, and each character has suffered in his, or her, own way. However, the collective…

Words 520 - Pages 3