Essay About Actions Of Sethe And Third Nameless Child

Beloved
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Beloved
Toni Morrisons, Beloved, is a complex narrative about the love between mothers
and daughters, and the agony of guilt. ” It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is
the outrageous claim of a slave.” These are the words, of Toni Morrison, used to describe
the actions of Sethe, the central character in the novel. She, a former slave, chooses to kill
her baby girl rather then let her live a life in slavery. In preventing her from the physical
and emotional horrors of slavery, Sethe has put herself in to a realm of physical and
emotional pain: guilt. And in understanding her guilt we can start to conceive her
motivations for killing her third nameless child. Did Beloveds death come out of love or
selfish pride? In preventing her child from going into slavery, Sethe, too, protected herself,
she prevented herself from re-entering captivity. In examining Sethes character we can
see that her motivations derive from her deep love towards her children, and from the lack
of love for herself. Sethes children are her only good quality. Her children are a part of
her and in killing one she kills a part of herself. What hinders over Sethe is her refusal to
accept responsibility for her babys death. Does she do this because she is selfishness or
because it need not be justified? Sethes love is clearly displayed by sparing her daughter
from a horrific life, yet, Sethe refuses to acknowledge that her show of compassion is also
murder.
Throughout the work, seems to have two separate identities, which affect her
actions. When reunited with Paul D., Sethe recalls her reactions to School Teachers
arrival with no mention to her daughters death. “Oh, no. I wasnt going back there
[Sweet Home]. I went to jail instead” (42) Sethe believes she made a moral stand in not
letting herself be taken into custody. In her statement she has done two things, she has
disassociated herself from the act, and also morally justified what had happened. When
Paul D, upon finding out what had really happened, confronts Sethe. She again ignores
the issue. “So when I got here, even before they let me get out of bed, I stitched her a
little something… all Im saying is that it is a selfish pleasure I never had before. I couldnt
let all that go back to where it was….” (163) Sethe loves her children. But its that selfish
pleasure which makes one question her actions. Sethe is living a life shes never known a
life of freedom, freedom from brutality, from fear, and from pain. In killing her daughter
she saved herself, for the second time. Sethe was still free, and she wasnt going back to
Sweet Home, or to School Teacher no matter what the cost. Sethes children were a part
of her, and they were a part she was not going to submit to slavery. They needed to be
protected, because the loss of them meant the loss of Sethe herself. When Sethe saw
School Teacher coming she “collected every bit if life she had made, all the parts of her
that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the
veil, out away, over there where no one could hurt them.”(163) Sethe sees no wrong here
because it as though she were killing herself. Saving herself from all the terror she had
already known. I was an act of love, and an act of primordial instinct.
Sethes needed to protect her babies because her mother didnt protect her. “Sethe
never bonded or connected with her mother, and as a result she devoted her life solely to
her children”(Lewis 120) Sethes mother “went back in rice and [Sethe] sucked from an
other woman whose job it was” (60). Sethe and her mother never had the intimate bond
between mother and daughter, therefore Sethe was hollow inside. It wasnt until she had
her own children that life and love filled within her. Sethes children were her life lines,
and she needed them to survive. But Sethe was not going to live her life in shackles, so
she could not let her children do so. The only way to be prevented from going back into
slavery would be to end her life, and she did through her daughter, Beloved. Beloved was
Sethe. This nameless child, who was buried under the headstone “Beloved,” was
christened on her burial. Sethe had heard the preacher say the words dearly beloved, in
his prayer, and thus derived her name. (5) However, the preacher in saying these words is
talking to the spectators. Sethe was the dearly beloved, and thus Beloved was named after
Sethe. Not only was Sethe and Beloved connected by blood, they were connected in
name. And Beloved became the embodiment of Sethe. So it could be felt that Sethe had
killed herself when escaping from School Teacher. Sethe said clearly that she would not
go back to him, or to slavery, and