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April 03, 2007
Is Sethe a murderer?
As I read Beloved, I find myself not only questioning the mysterious character, Beloved, but also Sethe. Sethe may love her children, but is she a bad mother? She sent her children to Baby Suggs' house so that they may find a better life. Although she had good intentions, it frustrated me that she would send a young girl, dependent on her mother's milk, without any food. Sethe said, "Nobody was going to nurse her like me...The milk would be there and I would be there with it" (19). What if it had taken longer for Sethe to make it there? What if she never made it at all? Would this child starve to death?
At first, I thought that the young girl's death was caused by starvation. I knew that the baby was dead, and reading about this memory of Sethe's made me think it was important in that it was the cause of the girl's death. When I read that the baby was fine when Sethe arrived at Baby Suggs' house, I changed my mind. Maybe Sethe did not cause her baby's death.
Then reading later, I again found myself questioning Sethe's character. Nelson Lord asked Denver, "Didn't your mother get locked away for murder? Wasn't it you in there with her when she went?" (123). Though murder could involve anyone, I immediately thought of the dead baby girl. Did Sethe murder her own daughter? Is that why the ghost is so spiteful?
Posted by emlauren at April 3, 2007 01:00 AM