Sethe As A Slave Mother

Another evidence that confirms Sethe's maternal love is her willingness to kill herself along with her offspring "my plan was to take us all to the other side where my own ma'am is" (390). According to the psychiatrist Lanny Berman, altruistic filicide cannot be fulfilled until the parent proves this love by committing suicide. If there is no suicidal behavior, the act is a homicide that is associated with psychotic break or depression (Gafni). Dr. Philip Resnick also notes that mothers who commit altruistic filicide see their children as "an extension of themselves. They do not want to leave a child motherless in a cruel world…they believe the child will be better off in heaven with her" (Friedman et al 288). So, if Sethe acts in a cold
Slave mothers believe that life is the death of the spirit, mind and body; but death itself is a safe place where no one would call their children animals. As a mother, Sethe knows that her responsibility is to keep her children away from danger, and that her children's existence depends on her. Adrienne O'Reilly points out "Sethe is passionately committed to, and fiercely protective of, her children, and that her nurturance is radical act of defiance against the prohibition against slave motherhood" (Toni Morrison and Motherhood 131). Sethe cannot watch her babies be pieces of the white's checker game; this motivates her to dream about a life full of freedom. As a child she learns that slavery prevents slaves from feeling or loving too much; but as a mother Sethe prevents slavery from affecting her mother love: "grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing" (88-9). Sethe's ambition to save her children from physical, sexual, and psychological abuse makes her the outrageous mother who puts her child's interest over hers. Sethe's actions are similar to Margaret Garner "alludes to the child she killed as being free from all trouble and sorrow, with a degree of satisfaction that almost chills the
So when Paul D tells Sethe that she must have other choices, she answers that her job is to know the best for her children and that is the best choice. In considering Paul D's word, Sethe has alternative choices. She could have killed Schoolteacher and his nephews, or even kill herself. If Sethe considers the chance of killing the white master, the results would be worse than eighteen years of guilt. The outcomes of killing Schoolteacher could be death for Sethe and capture for her four babies. Therefore, Sethe's efforts to save her children from slavery would be lost. Another option that could prevent filicide is suicide. Sethe had the chance to kill herself instead of Beloved but she did not dare. Because Sethe was an orphan, she could not make her children experience the harshness of orphanhood. For Sethe, the past is stronger than the present due to the pain it contains. Sethe's dilemma of her mother's death hunted her for years. For this reason, Sethe could not even think of committing suicide and leaving her children alone. Moreover, Sethe has an alternative act to filicide which is keeping Beloved alive; but this choice also has a negative result. As Sethe explains life is not good for her baby. If Beloved remained alive, all the members of the family would be sent back to slavery. As Harold Bloom argues:
Sethe behaves in the way expected of mothers: she loves her children and strives to