Essay on the book "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

Sethe
I have read the book Beloved by Toni Morrison and mine intensions with this essay is to focus
on describing one of the main characters from the novel.
The readers are thrown in a spellbinding and complex story full of interesting characters and
mind-boggling events.
In the novel we follow one of the main characters, Sethe, a black and former slave woman
who ran from her owner at Sweet Home and to freedom together with her four children.
The story takes place in America in the mid eighteen hundreds.
“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 through the veil, out, away, over there where
no one could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe.” (Page
163, Sethe) This quote is referring to a peak event in the novel and records Sethe’s thoughts
when she sees schoolteacher - Sethe´s cruel superior from Sweet Home - dismounting at
Bluestone Road 124 to catch and bring her and her children back to Sweet Home and then
tries to kill her own children to protect them from Sweet Home, succeeding with one. Clearly,
this quotation shows Sethe’s deep passion for her children. Not only does she try to kill her
children for their safety and succeeding with one but she also identify her children as “the
parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful” which therefore indicates that if she
had allowed schoolteacher to take them she had also allowed him to destroy everything that is
good in herself. So you can also say her acting also becomes an act of self-defense. She also
saw the decision she made as “simple”. From this, some would draw the conclusion that
Sethe is an awful and horrible kind of a person but at the same time this quotation and the
story behind it displays a mother’s unconditional love and devotion.
In addition to the mentioned above we can easy draw the conclusion that a mother’s love can
be lethal and then it suddenly becomes quite interesting to wonder exactly how a person who
is capable to do such a thing thinks of love. The following quotation will reply to our thoughts
extremely well: “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” (Page 164, Sethe) So, it can
be seen that Sethe has what some would say a healthy look on love; it is the kind of statement
you would love to her from your beloved. But together with the circumstances of Sethe’s life
the statement takes on a whole different meaning considering the fact that she definitely takes
the term of “thick” love to a whole other level. Sethe’s motherly instincts are absolutely her
most striking characteristic.
Sethe is also a proud and noble woman. For example she insisted on sewing a proper
wedding dress for her first night with her husband. But she also consider herself different
from the other blacks in the neighborhood which the following quotation is a great example
of: “But matches, sometimes a bit of kerosene, a little salt, butter too - these things she took
also, once in a while, and felt ashamed because she could afford to buy them; she just
didn’t want the embarrassment of waiting out back of Phelps store with the others till every
white in Ohio was served before the keeper turned to the cluster of Negro faces looking
through a hole in his back door” (Page 189) It is from this quote evident that Sethe sees Sethe
I have read the book Beloved by Toni Morrison and mine intensions with this essay is to focus
on describing one of the main characters from the novel.
The readers are thrown in a spellbinding and complex story full of interesting characters and
mind-boggling events.
In the novel we follow one of the main characters, Sethe, a black and former slave woman
who ran from her owner at Sweet Home and to freedom together with her four children.
The story takes place in America in the mid eighteen hundreds.
“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 through the veil, out, away, over there where
no one could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe.” (Page
163, Sethe) This quote is referring to a peak event in the novel and records Sethe’s thoughts
when she sees schoolteacher - Sethe´s cruel superior from Sweet Home - dismounting at
Bluestone Road 124 to catch and bring her and her children back to Sweet Home and then
tries to kill her own children to protect them from Sweet Home, succeeding with one. Clearly,
this quotation shows Sethe’s deep passion for her children. Not only does she try to kill her
children for their safety and succeeding with one but she also identify her children as “the
parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful” which therefore indicates that if she
had allowed schoolteacher to take them she had also allowed him to destroy everything that is
good in herself. So you can also say her acting also becomes an act of self-defense. She also
saw the decision she made as “simple”. From this, some would draw the conclusion that
Sethe is an awful and horrible kind of a person but at the same time this quotation and the
story behind it displays a mother’s unconditional love and devotion.
In addition to the mentioned above we can easy draw the conclusion that a mother’s love can
be lethal and then it suddenly becomes quite interesting to wonder exactly how a person who
is capable to do such a thing thinks of love. The following quotation will reply to our thoughts
extremely well: “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” (Page 164, Sethe) So, it can
be seen that Sethe has what some would say a healthy look on love; it is the kind of statement
you would love to her from your beloved. But together with the circumstances of Sethe’s life
the statement takes on a whole different meaning considering the fact that she definitely takes
the term of “thick” love to a whole other level. Sethe’s motherly instincts are absolutely her
most striking characteristic.
Sethe is also a proud and noble woman. For example she insisted on sewing a proper
wedding dress for her first night with her husband. But she also consider herself different
from the other blacks in the neighborhood which the following quotation is a great example
of: “But matches, sometimes a bit of kerosene, a little salt, butter too - these things she took
also, once in a while, and felt ashamed because she could afford to buy them; she just
didn’t want the embarrassment of waiting out back of Phelps store with the others till every
white in Ohio was served before the keeper turned to the cluster of Negro faces looking
through a hole in his back door” (Page 189) It is from this quote evident that Sethe sees
herself more greater and superior than the rest of the blacks. Why this is so does on the other
hand not comprehend so much considering the fact that she lives a life more miserable in
comparison with the other free blacks. Maybe and probably this is so because she lives with
the knowledge of her miserable life without wanting to accept it, which on the other hand also
is a good thing, to never stop fighting. But as much as she never wants to stop fighting or to
show herself weak there are moments when her mind breaks trough the wall that she is
building up around her: “No more running - from nothing. I will never run from another
thing on this earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let m...