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Beloved By Toni Morrison - College Essays

Beloved By Toni Morrison

In Toni Morrisons’ novel, Beloved, the main character Sethe, is a former slave
who chooses to kill her baby girl rather than allowing her to be exposed to the
physically, and emotionally damaging horrors of a life spent in slavery. There is
no other way to say it: she murdered her child. By killing her child, so dear to her
heart, the question arises whether Sethe acted out of true love or selfishness.
The fact that Sethe's act is irrational can easily be decided upon. Does Sethe kill
her baby girl because she wants 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? By
examining the complexities of Sethe's ...

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mercifully sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet Sethe refuses to
acknowledge that her show of mercy is also murder.
Throughout Beloved, Sethe's character consistently displays the duplistic nature
of her actions. Not long after Sethe's reunion with Paul D. she describes her
reaction to 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 by her refusal to allow herself and her children to be dragged
back into the evil of slavery. From the beginning, it is clear that Sethe believes
that her actions were morally justified. The peculiarity of her statement lies in her
omission of the horrifying fact that her moral stand was based upon the murder of
her child. By not even approaching the subject of her daughter's death, it is also
made clear that Sethe has detached herself from the act.
Even when Paul D. learns of what Sethe has done and confronts her with ...

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Beloved By Toni Morrison. (2006, May 25). Retrieved January 6, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Beloved-By-Toni-Morrison/46464

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 5/25/2006 12:08:14 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 542
Pages: 2

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