Beloved: Sethe And Her Daughter

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to save the baby from slavery or does Sethe end her
daughter's life because of a selfish refusal to reenter a life of slavery?
It can be said that she is a woman who chooses to love her children
and not herself. Sethe kills her baby because her children are the only
good and pure part of who she is and must be protected from the cruelty and
the "dirtiness" of slavery(Morrison 251). In this respect, her act is that
of love for her children. The selfishness of Sethe's act lies in her
refusal to accept personal responsibility for her baby's death. Sethe's
motivation is divided in the sense that she displays her love by mercifully
sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet Sethe refuses to acknowledge
that her show of mercy is also murder.
Not long after Sethe's reunion with Paul D. she describes her
reaction to the School Teacher's arrival: "Oh, no. I wasn't going back
there[Sweet Home]. I went to jail instead"(Morrison 42). Sethe's words
suggest that she has made a moral stand ...

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hat, she heard wings. Little hummingbirds stuck their
needle beaks right through her headcloth into her hair and beat their wings.
And if she thought anything, it was �No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just
flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that
were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them
thought the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt
them"(Morrison 163). Sethe's frustration is a product of her strange
reasoning.
In a sense she views her children as an extension of her life that
needsto be protected, at any cost. Sethe's concept of loving and protecting
her children becomes synonymous with her killing ...

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