Beloved: Sethe's Motivation For Killing Her Baby
Beginning of paper
"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 ....
Middle of paper
.... chooses to love her children but not herself. Sethe kills her baby because, in Sethe's mind, 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 dichotomous in that she displays her love by mercifully sparing her daug ....
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Word count: 1616
Page count: 6 (approximately 250 words per page)
