A Study of Beloved from the Perspective of Black Feminist Criticism

Posted by TerryTye
TAGS: black_feminist_criticism, black_women, identity
survival, solidarity,
Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is a towering figure in the contemporary
American and African-American letters and has drawn a lot of attention from the mainstream critics
at home and abroad. Her fifth novel, Beloved, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is
considered by many to be her best work. Ever since its publication in 1987, Beloved has aroused
many criticsgreat interests and it has been regarded asa milestone in American literary
history.Due to Toni Morrisons black and woman identity, the novel Beloved is deeply rooted in
Afro-American culture and black womens special experiences and feelings. Morrison engages
herself in breaking the stereotypes of black female characters depicted in most of literary canon,
moulds a range of vivid new images of black women, exhibits the conflict in their minds with the
stress of racism and sexism, and actively establishes black womens subjectivity. Yet, black woman
is not Morrisons only concern, she also gives admirable portrayals of black men and explores the
relationship between black men and black women in her novels. Her fiction Beloved becomes the
manifesto of black feminist criticism. Based on text analysis, this thesis aims at exploring and
restoring Toni Morrisons real writing intention, leitmotiv and the value of her literary creation in the
light of black feminist criticism.The thesis consists of four chapters besides Introduction and
Conclusion.The Introduction is a brief assessment of Toni Morrison and her novel Beloved, a survey
of various criticisms on Toni Morrisons Beloved, a general introduction to black feminist criticism
and the aim of this thesis.Up to now, there are lots of articles and essays that explore Morrisons
Beloved. The critics have made fruitful research on almost every facet of the novel, including the
controversial theme, the poetic and characteristic language, the quite different and well depicted
characters, the plentiful and significant symbols and the unique narrative devices. Some literary
criticisms also find their materials in this novel, such as Modernism, feminist criticism,
structuralism, postcolonial criticism, Marxist criticism and psychoanalytic criticism. Among these
different literary criticisms on Beloved at home, black feminist literary criticism has attracted few
criticsattention. Barbara Smith in his essayToward a Black Feminist Criticismsaid,without a
Black feminist critical perspective not only are books by Black women misunderstood, they are
destroyed in the process.Therefore, it is rather convincing to study Beloved by the employment of
Black feminist literary criticism.The aim of this thesis is to explore Toni Morrisons real writing
purpose and reappraise the value of her literary creation in the light of black feminist
criticism.Chapter One discusses Toni Morrisons black feminist stance. Toni Morrisons family
background, education experience, working and writing experiences help her form and strengthen
her black feminist stance. As a contemporary black American writer, Toni Morrison uses her unique
way to think the history and reality of American Blacks. To her, the past and the present are closely
connected with each other. As a writer, she focuses on the blacks past experience in order to
enlighten the black people. Beloved is such kind of novel whose main plot is based on a true
historical occurrence. In Beloved, Toni Morrison fully embodies Barbara Smiths two basic principles
that black feminist criticism should follow. First, she insists that the politics of sex as well as the
politics of race and class are crucially interlocking factors, and analyzes the complexities of class,
race, and sex and how they affect black women and the whole Afro-American ethnic group still
captive in this present-day life. Second, Morrison also lays special emphasis on the blacks,
especially Black womens past experience and its educational significance for the contemporary
blacks.Chapter Two discloses the traumas caused by slavery, racism and sexism. Slavery is the
most vicious institutions human beings have ever devised. The history of American Blacks is the
history of deprivation. Under slavery, the Blacks are deprived of everything human beings should
have, more importantly, identity. Morrison depicts multiple examples of the loss of self of some
characters such as Baby Suggs, Paul D, Sethe and Denver, etc. Through their experiences, Morrison
wants to disclose that the most dangerous effects of slavery is its negative impact on the former
slavessenses of self.Under slavery, speech of the blacks is totally controlled by the slave owners.
The blacks are deprived of the right to speak and the right to receive education. Even the use of
their own language is forbidden. This is a kind of culture deprivation. For example, Sethe forgets
the language Nan taught her, which her mother used too. Paul D is an illiterate. He can not read
but only memorizes the letters of his name. Sixo is very smart and eloquent. But when he attempts
to assert his rationality to reject his action of stealing, he is severely beaten by schoolteacher
becausedefinitions belonged to the definers---not the defined.Furthermore, under slavery, racism
and sexism, the normal black maternal images and status are also severely distorted. They are

abused by the white as a tool to satisfy their sexual desire and a machine for reproduction. The
crime of slavery is so cruel and inhuman that it even leads to the incident of infanticide. Ella is
locked in a house and shared by a pair of white father and son when she is young. As for Baby
Suggs, she has eight children with six different men. Sethes nameless mother is raped by the crew
for many times during the transportation from Africa to America. Thus, women slaves are more
fragile than males under slavery system. For every female slave, there exists the tendency to be
raped and deprived of the rights to be mothers. They have no control of their own fates, no more to
say their own children. Slavery shatters their dream to be good mothers. Sethe is such a good
example. Her act of infanticide illuminates the perverse forces of the institution of slavery. Under it,
a mothers best way to expresses her love for her children is to murder them and thus protect them
from the more gradual destruction wrought by slavery. Therefore, the institution of slavery is the
cause for all the distorted black maternal love.All these cause the physical, emotional and spiritual
devastation and make the blacks suffer a lot. Even after the abolition of slavery, the devastation
continues to haunt those characters that are former slaves even in freedom. The blacks still live
under the racial discrimination and oppression and cannot easily and completely walk out of the
shadow of history.Chapter Three explores the awakening of black womens self-consciousness and
black peoples ethnic consciousness in the light of black feminist criticism.In Beloved, Morrison
probes into the connection between the past and the present and attempts to enlighten the Blacks
to combine the present with the history to rethink about the miserable reality and find a way out.
Through the depiction of three generations of black womens struggles for freedom and selfidentity, Morrison illustrates that for black women, the quest for self begins with the point of selfconsciousness, the recognition of self as a black woman.Baby Suggs is the representative of the
first generation and considered as a failed fighter. After gaining her freedom from slavery, Baby
Suggs urges the black community to love their black body and self; yet after the community fails to
inform her of the coming of the white men who are in pursuit of her daughter-in-law and her
grandchildren and the subsequent misery of infanticide, Baby Suggs, once a benevolent fighter,
loses her confidence in the black community and gives up her struggle for a whole self. She spends
her time contemplating color in bed and her newly gained self-consciousness of freedom is
gradually lost.Sethe is the representative of the second generation. She is an indomitable struggler
for the achievement of her whole self. Unwilling to bear the dehumanizing treatment at Sweet
Home, Sethe escapes from the slave plantation and successfully joins Baby Suggs at 124. There
her sense of subjectivity is further developed. But infanticide ends Sethes twenty-eight-day free
life and drives her to the extreme. From then on, she is tortured by her past and ghost baby
Beloved. Her self-consciousness is weakened again. It is Paul Ds return that brings Sethe the
courage to go on living and come to realize she is her best thing. Sethes self-consciousness is
awakened and there are possibilities of a future for her. Denver, the representative of the third
generation, is the hope and future. Because of her mothers infanticide, Denver is isolated from her
family and the community. After the appearance of Beloved, Denver completely forgets her self and
devotes herself to taking care of her. But she is gradually shut out of the relationship bond between
Sethe and Beloved. Denver watches Sethe waste away and feels her responsibility for her mother
and her family. Finally, she successfully seeks for help from the community. After this experience,
Denver transforms from a girl into a mature woman and begins, for the first time, to develop an
independent sense of self.However, black womans experience is not Morrisons sole concern. In
Beloved, Morrison also points out that black womens struggle for the awakening of their selfconsciousness cannot be separated from black men and the black communitys efforts. Only with
both sexesefforts, the survival and development of the blacks as a whole can be achieved.
Through the experience of black men such as Paul D, Halle, Stamp Paid and Sixo, Morrison assures
the readers that black mens efforts and contribution cannot be ignored. The Blacks are a people
full of hope. With the affirmation about subjectivity, Black peoples ethnic consciousness is
awakened.Chapter Four researches into the solution for the Blacks to achieve their true liberty and
future development. That is solidarity. In Beloved, Morrison demonstrates the extent to which
individuals need the support of their black community, the minorities and the enlightened Whites in
order to survive. Since individual protest is too weak to protest themselves, they should unite all
the people even including the whites as many as possible. Therefore, unity is the only way with
which African American people can survive.The conclusion concludes that to interpret Beloved in
the light of black feminist criticism is advantageous to explore and restore Toni Morrisons real
writing purpose, leitmotive and value of her creation.By selecting the true material of bloody slave
story, the real intention of Morrisons writing is not to frighten the readers, but to confront,
reconstruct, and recover the past traumatic events and find a way out. Morrison has the strong
ethnic consciousness. She strives for the improvement of African-American material life and social
status. Meanwhile she has her eyes on her peoples future. In doing so, Morrison wants to prove
that the Blacks are a people full of hopes. Since the future is inextricably tied to the past, she

hopes that black people could combine the present with the past to rethink about the origin of
todays misery and find out something that enlightens their present and future.The way out
suggested by Morrison is not only instrumental to the survival of African-Americans in a whitedominated culture, but may provide some hints to the survival of other marginalized. Morrisons
focus is not only her black people and she has a huge horizon for the whole human beings. The
novel Beloved is not only serving for her black people, but also belongs to all the races. Therefore,
the effect and value of the novel is far-reaching.

The Destruction of Motherhood in Beloved

The Destruction of Motherhood in Beloved
Sunday is gloomy; the hours are slumberless. Dearest, the shadows I live with are numberless.
Little white flowers will never awaken you; not where the dark coach of sorrow has taken you.
Darling, I hope that my dream hasn't haunted you. My heart is telling you how much I wanted you.
Gloomy Sunday Bjork
Toni Morrisons Beloved explores the many horrors of, as well as emotional and physical damage
incurred by, slavery. One of the most poignant and potentially devastating effects is the effect it
has on motherhood. Slavery, as illustrated by Morrison, destroyed mother-child relationships.
Slavery turned children of slaves into propertyproperty that was not the slaves, but the masters;
mothers could not nurse or raise their own children: a provision to ensure they would not become
attached to them; and the horrors of slavery caused emotional disconnects that led to mothers
mentally neglecting their children. This was perhaps because mothers knew they would be losing
their children sooner or later anyway.
Morrison explores the fact that slave mothers often were not allowed to raise or nurse their own
children, and shows the damage it does to the mother-child relationships. She illustrates this with
three episodes in the novel: (1) Sethes relationship with her own mother; (2) Baby Suggs
relationships with her children; and (3) the milk stealing scene. Each of these experiences
demonstrates the harmful effects of slavery on motherhood.
Sethe did not get the chance to know her mother, and only encountered her one time that she
could recall; her mother pulled her aside to show her a branding under her breast, and told her that
if anything happened to her, Sethe could recognize her by that mark (72). When her mother
Beaver 2
is hanged, Sethe recognizes her branding. According to Lynda Koolish, of San Diego State
University, Sethe was deeply affected, not only by her lack of a relationship with her mother, but
also by her mothers hanging.
Sethes mother labored in the fields and had no choice but to allow her daughter to be wet-nursed
by Nan, the one-armed slave who functions as a surrogate mother for Sethe. Denied her mothers
succor when she was alive, Sethe lives with an even greater deprivation when her mother is
hanged: not only the absolute loss of her mothers continuing concern and love, but the terrible
knowledge of her mothers apparent deliberate choice to leave Sethe behind. [This assumption is
made because her mother is hanged; this punishment is reserved for those who try to escape, to
serve as a warning to other slaves.] (183)
Slavery had so destroyed Sethes mother that she chose to leave her only living child, presumably
the only child she loved, to try to escape. Nan tells Sethe that she was with her mother on the ship
from Africa, and they were both raped and impregnated several times by the crew. She explains,
She threw them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The
others from more whites she also threw away. Without names, she threw them. You she gave the
name of the black man. She put her arms around him. The others she did not put her arms around
(Morrison 74). So it is clear that Sethe was loved by her mother, but her mother still tried to leave
her behind.
Sethe would rather kill her children than subject them to the horrors of slavery once she had
escaped with them. She shows this when she tells Paul D, I couldnt let her nor any of em live
under schoolteacher. [] I took and put my babies where theyd be safe (192-3). Her mother,
Beaver 3
however, perhaps knew that if she tried to escape with Sethe and had been captured, Sethe would
have also been hanged. While Sethe tries to kill her children to save them, her mother killed her
other babies in order to challenge her sexual and economic oppression, according to Michele A.L.
Barzey of Black Theology in Britain: A Journal of Contextual Praxis (12). Sethe does not see that her

mother did not want to put her life even more at risk by trying to escape with her. This forever
shapes the way Sethe thinks of motherhood and slavery. The fact that Sethe does not know her
mother or understand her motives affects her relationship with her own children in different ways:
she hates that her mother could not nurse her, so she places extreme importance on nursing her
own children; and she tries to be disconnected from her children for fear that she will lose all of
them, as she lost her mother.
While Sethes emotional disconnect with her children comes after she has been able to love em
proper (Morrison 190), Baby Suggs emotional disconnect with her children starts immediately.
According to Barzey, she refused to let herself love children who could be taken away from her
(14). Morrison clearly illustrates this when she explains why she had prepared herself for Halles
death.
She had been prepared for that better than she had for his life. The last of her childen, whom she
barely glanced at when he was born because it wasnt worth the trouble to try to learn features you
would never see change into adulthood anyway. Seven times she had done that: held a little foot;
examined the fat fingertips with her ownfingers she never saw become the male or female hands
a mother would recognize anywhere. She didnt know to this day what their permanent teeth
looked like; or how they held their heads when they walked. Did Patty lose her lisp? What color did
Famous skin finally
Beaver 4
take? Was that a cleft in Johnnys chin or just a dimple that would disappear soons his jawbone
changed? Four girls, and the last time she saw them there was no hair under their arms. Does
Ardelia still love the burned bottom of bread? All seven were gone or dead. What would be the
point of looking too hard at the youngest one? (163-5)
Baby Suggs had lost all of her children in one way or another, and her emotional block was a
method of self-preservation: if she did not know her children, she could not miss them when they
were gone.
Moreover, the metaphorical reduction of slaves to livestock constructs the idea that they are
property to be bought and sold; slave children are a form of self-sustaining crop to slave masters
theirs to be bought and sold, and not the mothers to love and nurture. According to Koolish, While
pregnancy thus creates for many women the illusion of an undifferentiated and relatively
unconflicted fusion between mother and child, slavery makes impossible both in pregnancy and its
aftermath, the ideal experience of mothering (182). Slavery, in its very essence, prohibits mothers
from bonding with their children. This is because it is understood that they are property. Barzey
explains that when a slave mother kills one of her children, the main charge against her is loss of
and/or damage to property (12). Sethe clearly alludes to this when she says that they [her
children] wasnt [sic] mine to love (Morrison 190). In fact, slaves, as well as slave children, were
considered the same as work-animals to their masters. This point is made explicitly clear when
schoolteacher thinks that Sethe had at least ten breeding years left. But now shed gone wild, due
to the mishandling of the nephew whod overbeat her and made her cut and run. Schoolteacher
had chastised that nephew, telling him to thinkjust thinkwhat would his own horse do if you
beat it beyond the point of education (176). Schoolteacher,
Beaver 5
and slave masters like him, did not regard slaves as human, but instead believed that they were
sub-human, with human-like and animal-like qualities. This justified the horrible treatment slaves
were forced to endure.
Not only did the horrible treatment leave physical scars, but also very deep emotional scars. This is
especially the case when Sethes milk is stolen. Since she was not only deprived of nursing from
her mother for more than the first few weeks of life, but she was also nursed last by Nan and left
hungry, Sethe understood the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and children. She said,
Nan had to nurse whitebabies and me too because Maam was in the rice. The little whitebabies
got it first and I got what was left. Or none. There was no nursing milk to call my own. I know what
it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to fight and holler for it, and to have so
little left (236). This was likely the reason Sethe was so concerned about providing milk for her
children. She knew how it felt to not have a mother to love and provide for her.
Her milk was all she had for her children, but she made sure they had enough. As she imagines
telling Beloved, Sethe thinks, [] only me had your milk, and God do what He would, I was going
to get it to you. You remember that, dont you; that I did? That when I got here I had milk enough

for all? (233). She desperately wanted Beloved to understand that, even though she was violated,
she still had enough milk for her baby. Barzey explains:
Sethes love for her children, her striving to nurture them, her desire to keep them safe is
symbolized by her ability to breastfeed them. The schoolteacher and his sons had held her down
and drank her breast milk. When she told Mrs. Garner what had happened, she was beaten. Yet
when she spoke of the incident, she was more angry about the fact that
Beaver 6
they had stolen the milk intended for her child than the whipping that had left her with a back so
scarred she had no feeling in it. She had to get away from Sweet Home, not for herself, but so that
she could feed her baby daughter whom she had entrusted to another runaway slave. (14)
Sethe was so appalled that they dare try to steal from her child, by stealing her milk, that it was a
far worse atrocity to steal her milk than to open her back for telling on them. By stealing her milk,
they had not only committed a crime against Sethe, but against her child, too. They had attempted
to take away the only thing Sethe could provide for her children. But they could not steal the milk
from her child, though theyd tried. Sethe says, [Beloved] She my daughter. The one I managed to
have milk for and to get it to her even after they stole it; after they handled me like I was the cow,
no, the goat, back behind the stable because it was too nasty to stay in with the horses (Morrison
236-7). So, while the milk-stealing had scarred Sethe emotionally much worse than her completely
scarred back, in her mind she still won since she still got the milk to her Beloved.
While slavery may have destroyed motherhood and mother-child relationships, it did not succeed in
destroying the love between slave mothers and their children. Barzey concludes,
Sethes love was so strong that it overcame the indignity and humiliation of being milked, it carried
her and her unborn child to freedom in spite of an open back and feet that were no more than
pieces of meat. It carried her to a woodshed where, to save her children from the slavery that had
destroyed Baby Suggs and all the men from Sweet home except Paul D, she took a handsaw and
prepared to send her children to a safe place. (14)
Beaver 7
Sethe had such love for her children that she couldnt fathom them living the life she endured;
death was much kinder than slavery. Slavery could never destroy maternal love, but it forced
mothers to make decisions no mother should have to make: showing your child how to identify
your lifeless body; forgetting all of their features to make their absence less painful; and ultimately
killing them to spare them. Yes, motherhood was destroyed, but maternal love? Never
Analyzing Relationship of Sethe and Denver as Mother and Daughter Relationship in the Novel
Beloved Written By Toni Morrison
Abstract
This analysis explores the relationship between Sethe, an African American woman with Denver her
daughter as representation of mother and daughter relationship. The main focus of this analysis is
to provide forms and kinds expression of love that coloring mother and daughter relationship
Keywords: Sethe, Denver, Mother, Daughter, Relationship
I.

Introduction

There is only one the most beautiful word in the world, and there is only one the
most impressive figure in the world, Mother. As time goes by, a young girl transforms become a
teenager, adolescent, woman, and the final stage of her life, she will become a mother. Mother and
Daughter, both of them are component that cant be separated. All mothers experience
miscellaneous things of become daughter, in contrary, all daughter must be experience the colorful
of Mothers world. So does with African American women, spending their whole life in the cruel of
slavery, they make relationship with men; get married and built family, consisting daughter and
son. As what Toni Morrison writes in the novel entitled Beloved, she portrays relationship of Sethe

and Denver, as depiction of African American mother and daughter relationship, but this kind of
relationship somehow also shows relationship of mother and daughter in general.
Beloved is the fifth amazing work of Toni Morrison which published in 1987. Set in
1873 just after the American Civil War (1861-1865), it is based on the story of the African American
slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state.
This woman chooses to kill her two old years daughter, rather than to allow her to be taken back
into slavery as she felt. Beloved is Sethes third child, murdered at the age of two and a become
ghost in the house of 124 for the next twenty years. In this writing, I am going to observe
relationship of Sethe and her youngest daughter, Denver.
This novel explores themes of love, family and self-possession in a world where slavery has only
recently become a thing of the past. Part history, part ghost story, part historical fiction, the novel
also seek to understand the impact of slavery, both on the psychology of individuals and on the
larger patterns of culture and history.[1] Morrison was drawn to the historical account, which
brought up questions of what it meant to love and to be a mother in a place and time where life
was often devalued.

Toni Morrison is known as first American African woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1993. In her novels, Toni Morrison known focuses on the experience of black Americans, particularly
emphasizing blacks woman experience in an unjust society and the search for cultural identity. She
uses fantasy and mythic elements along with realistic depiction of racial, gender and class conflict.
[2]
II. Discussion
Many girls while growing up tend to imitate their mothers. Most daughters considered their mother
as their idol, inspiration, and motivation. When you are young you idolize your mother, she is a
goddess.[3] In view point of daughters; mother is the only one perfect figure in their world.
Sometimes daughters imitate their mother as the way to express their love to their mother,
daughters want to be like their mother. This kind of thing is depicted by Toni Morrison through the
character of Denver. Denver is the youngest daughter of Sethe, about 18 years old. By her
immaturity, seems that Denver idolized her mother, Sethe. Denver wants to do everything in the
way Sethe does. She imitates all things contained in Sethes self. The way Sethe walks, laughs,
talks, and dresses. By imitating Sethe, Denver indirectly shows that she idolized Sethe so much,
even though Denver never says it by words to Sethe.
Dressed in Sethes dresses She imitated Sethe, talked the way she did, laughed her laugh, and
used her body the same way down to the walk, the way Sethe moved her hands (241)
Position of Mother is not only become people who give birth to a daughter. More than that,
daughters feels that their mothers are their close friend, a right place to share their thoughts,
feelings, and suffering. Relationship of mother and daughter is a complex relationship that
mothers purpose is to guide her daughter into becoming a woman. Daughters need a mothers
guidance and support in friendships, how to choose friends, and how to be a friend. In teaching her
daughter in becoming a woman she passes on the joys of having a family and about love. [4]
Mothers become the most important figure in home. They nurse their children; provide love,
affection, some norms and rules that influencing the growing of moral and attitude of their children.
Black women had children, set up households, nursed and cared for their children, and formed
communities. As mothers, black women loved their children and cared for them in spite of the
multiple tasks they performed. The bond between mother and child was strong, and slave women
often took extreme measures to care for their children. [5]During the slavery, slave mothers nursed
white children as well as their own. As one English observer wrote, each white child has its black
Momma.[6] Slave mother prepare all white children needs, breastfeeding, and feed them. As
mother, Sethe feels it is a duty of mother to nurse her daughter. Sethe gives the best nursing to
her daughter. She doesnt allow anyone nurse the daughter but her. Sethe thinks that her milk is
the best one so Sethe devotes only her milk to her daughter,

All I know was had to get milk to my baby girl. Nobody was going to nurse her like me Nobody
knew that but me and nobody had her milk but me (Page 16)
Mother knows very well the best thing for her daughter. Sometimes what mothers have in mind
doesnt in accordance with what daughters have. Different in thought makes daughters think that
mothers doesnt know and understand what the daughters feel and want. In her private practice,
Roni Cohen-Sandler, Ph.D., psychologist and co-author of Im Not Mad, I Just Hate You! A New
Understanding of Mother-Daughter Conflict, sees three primary complaints that daughters have
about their mothers: Mothers try to parent them and are overly critical and demanding. From
mothers perspective, daughters dont listen to them, make poor choices and have no time for
them. Almost in her whole life, Sethe is still haunted by the feeling of guilty and sinful because
killing her daughter. This kind of feeling makes her become protective to Denver. Sethe and Denver
live in 124, a house in a rural area close to Cincinatti. They are ostracized from the community for
Sethes past and her pride. [7] Sethe works as a cook, and Denver spends her days alone. Denver
is terribly lonely and Sethe doesnt allow Denver to make friends with other blacks because Sethe
doesnt want Denver being insulted.
Maam wouldnt let me go outside in the yard and eat with the others. We stayed inside. That
hurt. (Page 209)
I cant live here. I dont know where to go or what to do, but I cant live here. Nobody comes by.
Boys dont like me. Girls dont either. (Page 14)
Protection that a mother gives to her daughter shows how much she loves her daughter. Mothers
treat their children in the name of love. Sometimes mother worry about the future of her daughter,
and this make mother to do something unreasonable and out of logic. According to Dolan Habbard,
the novel Beloved is centered on the historical fact that there were Black women during slavery
that terminated their babies lives rather than allow them to be offered up to the destruction of
slavery. Seethe feels deep in traumatic, the effect of slavery. Thing she want happen to her
children is live happily out of slavery. Come up with this thought, Sethe kills her daughter because
she loves her so much that she does not want her daughter (Beloved) to die undergo slavery as
she has. This death kills both body and soul. Sethe thinks by killing her daughter (Beloved), she
gives protection to her that she will not feel the cruelty and sadism of slavery. However, the love
that imputes this kind of logic in Sethes head is type strange of love.
Why I did it. How if I hadnt killed her she would have die and that something I could not bear to
happen to her (200)
You cant protect her every minute. Whats going to happen when you die?. Nothing! Ill protect
her while Im live and Ill protect her when I aint. (45
Relationship between mother and daughter intertwined because of chemistry among them. Mother
tends to feel that her daughter is part of her life, breath and soul. This idea motivates mother to
give the best thing she can to her daughter. Love, protection, and guidance can be shown because
impetus of bond between mother and daughter.The maternal bonding starts to develop during the
nine months of pregnancy and forming a special bond with her unborn child. The bonding
chemistry is like no other bond or relationship a woman has ever experienced, it is a miracle of life
she has brought forth in this world, and one she will always be connected with. A mother is not
thinking how she can have a mother and daughter relationship, it happens instinctively.
A mothers subconscious behavior to nurture her child is natural, and what emotions she has are
stronger than words can express. After the birth of the child the special bond continues and
develops emotionally and physically. The bonding chemistry is forming through all the senses of
smell, touch, verbal and non-verbal cues, and taste. These precious moments are internalized by
both mother and daughter, therefore the mother and daughter relationships forms.[8] Beloved is
Sethes third child, murdered at the age of one and a ghost in 124 for the next twenty years. She is
reborn in that twentieth year, but though 21 years old in appearance, her mind is that of a child. As
what Sethe feels to her daughter (Beloved), this appearance of Beloved she feel that it is reflection
of Sethes appearance. This case implies that there is strong feeling and chemistry between
mother and daughter. Sethe feels that Sethe and her daughter are same in appearance, face and
smiling. When she sees her daughter smiles, she also sees her smiles.

When I went in, I saw her face coming to me and it was my face too. She smiles at me and it is
my own face smiling (214)
III.

Conclusion

Things that mother do to her daughter depict how much mother care and love her daughter.
Mother tries and always tries to do and give the best thing to her daughter until the end of her life,
begin from the tiny things up to the huge thing that daughter doesnt realize. Sometime daughters
dont understand how hard the responsibilities of their mother in maintain their love to their
daughter is. Sometimes love cant be expressed through words and poetry, and sometime
someone has to feel the hard thing and face bad reality to show how deep she loves someone.
What Sethe do to her baby is not an easy thing to do as a mother. Perhaps she has thought the
idea to kill her baby many times, and this action depressed her both mentally and psychologically.

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think
twice, once for herself and once for her child. Sophia Loren