Essay Archive - Beloved: Sethe's Character
Beloved: Sethe's Character
"It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave"(Morrison 1987). These are the words that Toni Morrison used to describe the actions of the central character within the novel, Beloved. That character, Sethe, is presented as a former slave woman who chooses to kill her baby girl rather than allowing her to be exposed to the physically, emotionally, and spiritually oppressive horrors of a life spent in slavery. Sethe's action is indisputable: She has killed her child, that terrible. Sethe's motivation is not so clearly defined. By killing her "Beloved" child, has Sethe ac....
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