In fiction, the typical image of motherhood is that of a mother who adores and loves her children unconditionally. However, when women write on the topic of motherhood, they complicate and critique the standard mindset of motherhood. When toxic dimensions, such as slavery, interfere with motherhood, the problem of being a mother when one's child could be taken away complicates motherhood. In Toni Morrison's Beloved, Sethe's love for her children drives her to try to kill them, though she only manages to kill one, an act outside the realm of conventional motherhood. Sethe's decision could be seen as her becoming master of her children's fate, thus taking on a masculine role such as that of school teacher. Because of her traditional maternal choices being taken away from her as a slave and dehumanized, Sethe's love for her children became “thick” and twisted in her efforts to decide how her children would live. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From the beginning, Sethe and her children's home, 124 Bluestone Road, is described as "...mischievous. Full of the child's poison. As 124 is "full of poison," Sethe and her daughter Denver they remain alone with the ghost of the murdered child after the death of their grandmother Baby Suggs and Denver's brothers ran away once they became old enough (Morrison 3, 5-6). but she becomes a disruptive force when Paul D. Sethe, overall, is a good mother to Denver; she takes care of her and takes care of her. The downside is that the way Sethe treats Denver like a child who is afraid to leave home contrasts with the fact that Denver is eighteen years old. Both girls avoid their past, which enslaves them both in the present (Otten 83). Beloved, stating that Sethe's faith in "[her] future was a matter of keeping the past at bay." Beloved's presence upsets Sethe's insistence on forgetting her past as a slave; Beloved represents not only the ghost of Sethe's murdered son, but Sethe's past, which must be recovered and acknowledged, like the scars on her back. The whip marks represent a past that Sethe represses, but cannot forget. The signs are at the same time "history and history". (Peach 95, 132). Sethe's first introduction into slavery was not cruel; she was given the choice of who she could choose among the Sweet Home Boys to marry and what work she could do on the plantation. She chooses Halle and has four children, all biologically Halle's, something that sets her apart from other slaves. The death of the plantation owner, Mr. Gardener, marks the end of Sethe's femininity and motherhood. Upon his death, slaves are no longer individuals. Their heads are measured - a form of pseudoscience of Darwinism to prove that blacks were inferior to whites - men are forced to wear bridles and have their shotguns taken away, and families are separated, sold off, whipped, hanged and witnesses black schools being burned (Morrison 180, 193). The effect of the master and his nephews shatters Sethe's confidence and reduces him to an object of slavery. The “theft” of milk from Sethe's breasts and the whippings she suffers from the master and his nephews remove the bond between mothers and children and create a systematic form of slave breeding. Sethe's chance to be a conventional mother and take care of herself wasdenied, along with her femininity as she was considered and reduced to "reproductive stock". (Peach 93) Sethe's decision to kill Beloved is said to be to "stop [the teacher] in his tracks." His action was horrible to the point that the atrocities committed by the teacher's grandchildren against the slaves in Sweet Home were seen as "counterproductive" and "unwise" compared to the murder of the little girl.Beloved (Otten 86). Motherhood, described as an archetype of femininity, no longer focuses on Sethe's desires, but on those of the patriarchy. In turn, motherhood is not defined by women, but created by the inventions of men (Patton 125). Ironically, the teacher and the grandchildren never allow Sethe's conventional maternal instincts. Peach further explains that Sethe's denial of femininity and the formation of a maternal bond with her children led to the distortion of womanhood and motherhood. In a discussion with Stamp Paid about punishment and God, Sethe calls herself “a nigger woman” (Morrison 179). The impact of slavery on Sethe led her to no longer see herself as a person of significant value, however she classifies herself as female and could be seen as positive. However, her femininity is tied to her identity as a black slave. As Patton explains, slaves were “not to be troubled by family ties.” Furthermore, female slaves are not expected to experience maternal love. Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother, spoke of the domestic breakdown common to slaves: "men and women were moved around like checkers...the ugliness of life was the shock...after learning that no one stopped playing checkers alone for the pieces included [Sethe's] children" (Morrison 29). In the lives of slaves, family and motherhood required different meanings because they were classified as slaves first. Therefore, they are at the mercy of their masters. Although Sethe's children are not sold, due to her actions and the escape of two of her children, she is separated from her mother; he experienced the effects of slavery and its breakup of families. Partly because of this upheaval, Sethe fails to maintain proper boundaries because her love is “too thick”; that dense love that leads Sethe to kill her daughter and try to kill her other children before the teacher can capture them and return them to slavery. For Sethe, murder becomes the symbol of maternal love, but her actions appear unfathomable to others. Her extreme response is tied to her intense experience of loss and parallel wanting to decide the fate of her children when she has no ownership of them, let alone herself (Patton). 126). Sethe rejects Paul D's criticism of her love by stating that she had no right to make a choice for her children while mentioning what has become of her life and Sethe has a quick response to Paul D that is measured, studied and abused by the teacher, and did not want that life for his children and attempts to justify his actions to Beloved by explaining that he was acting out of love (Morrison 165). portrayed as Sethe possessing her children. In Sethe's eyes, her escape from slavery empowered her to love and mother in an unconventional way. As Patton states, Beloved celebrates Sethe's escape from slavery, but focuses on her motherhood. Motherhood becomes the means by which Sethe reclaims her identity and gender, but stifles it. After discovering Beloved's identity, Denver fears that Beloved will leave her, but Beloved explains how she returned to remove the "iron circle" from Sethe's past (Morrison 101). Despite his claims, Beloved is a vengeful spirit. His resurrection forces Sethe to remember and return to her past, an act that consumes her with guilt as she begs forcompassion by telling how he suffered after Beloved's murder. As a result, the mother/daughter relationship cripples Sethe as her love for Beloved becomes all-consuming and parasitic. Instead of forgiveness, the Beloved seeks revenge; he has already suffered from separation from his mother and therefore wishes to be reunited. However, the Beloved seeks reunion through death. (Peach 127-128). With this, Sethe is trapped in motherhood physically and psychologically. Sethe often states that no one will love her children as she loves them, but her love is selfish. His affection for Beloved at the expense of his health and neglect of Denver is to no one's advantage; both Sethe and Beloved continue to argue as Beloved "demanded the best of everything". Although 124 Bluestone is described as peaceful, the anger and tension in the home isolates Sethe, Beloved, and Denver from their community (Morrison 239-241). However, it is O'Reilly who points out how Sethe's over-identification with Beloved prevents either of them from being individualized. Psychologically, Sethe's association with Beloved as she and her mother stems from a “passionate desire to be a mother, to be mother and daughter” equal to her commitment to motherhood. Part of being a mother comes from learning from your mother. Sethe's mother, whom Sethe remembers only by the sign of ownership, was denied the right to bond with her; Sethe was breastfed by someone whose “job it was to do so.” In her innocence, she asks to be branded the same way as her mother only to be slapped (Morrison 76-77). His mother's sign was that of ownership, the equivalent of writing "ownership" under her breast. Sethe loves her children enough not only to bring them the milk her mother could not provide for her, but to kill them before allowing them to be enslaved. Without a mother figure, Sethe began to love her children without understanding how they could be taken away from her. By attempting to kill her children, Sethe asserts her right to her children beyond her control as a black slave. Faced with her inability to be a traditional mother, Sethe believes that killing her children is the only way to protect them from the teacher's atrocities (Patton 13, 130). As a mother, Sethe chose to keep her children away from the horrors of slavery. In doing so, he makes the choice for his children. Nonetheless, Sethe was unable to escape and ignore its consequences. As a tragic hero, Sethe defies her fate, as heartbreaking as it is. Because of this, Sethe's consequences are passed on to her daughter and she must find a way to redeem and deal with the choices she made for her children. After confessing her actions to Paul D, Sethe is proud of what she did and shows no remorse. As a mother, Sethe was doing what she believed was the right thing: protecting her children as if she had a legal right to them. Her actions destroyed her family, caused her to be shunned by the Sweet Home community, and established a co-dependency with her surviving daughter Denver. Denver is, consequently, marked by her mother's history of infanticide (Patton 131); she drank Beloved's blood along with her mother's milk, her only friend was Beloved in her ghost form who she played with while "waiting for daddy", she loves while she fears her mother because she knows Sethe would kill her if she had her in fact she was not stopped and is isolated to the point of “not leaving the yard” (Morrison 165, 205). Sethe ultimately manages to find redemption through Denver's actions. He brought awareness to their community about Beloved, causing those from Sweet Home to go to 124 Bluestone to exorcise Beloved. Sethe, seeing this, vents her fear of what she believes is losing her children.