Question 1:

Question 1:
Morrison in so many ways portrays Sethe’s love for her children as twisted, or even unethical in the eyes of us as readers. I believe that Toni puts these instances in here for not for exaggeration but fact, as we were told in class the death of Beloved was based of a true slave story Toni Morrison had been told in the past. Also, Sethe’s story is slightly different from and of the slave stories any of us had heard in class. None of us had anything to really compare her actions to today, which would have entirely changed our outlook on this “unethical and twisted” love for her children.
The major event of Sethe’s twisted love for her children is when she attempts to kill all of her children to keep them away from schoolteacher and his men, but only successfully kills Beloved. Although us as readers find it very crazy to go to such an extreme as to kill these children Sethe herself said that she loved more than she knew she ever should as a slave and then a runaway slave, and Paul D stated that “For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love.” (page 45) Paul D saw Sethe’s mistakes with her love before he even knew the way Beloved came to die, which shows how the times were different even from how Sethe loved her children. Sethe was twisted in her love even in those times because she loved her children, something slaves would never dare to do. Ofcourse, this love did bring trouble—The death of Beloved, and Howard and Buglar leaving.
Sethe felt that slavery was not an option with her children, she knew she only had one choice if the situation came to slavery, she would rather have her children dead than someone else’s property. Her love was so dominant that she knew life would be unbearable for her children back at Sweet Home. This unethical or twisted love does give us a clear view into Sethe’s personality. Sethe is obviously loving and stubborn. When in the first scene of Paul D and Sethe, Sethe stands up for Denver solely because Denver is her child and Sethe loves her dearly. She is stubborn with Paul D’s accusations and wont let him state their validity. Toni Morrison shows that these situations shape characters like Sethe’s personality through actions.
Another instance where Sethe’s love for her children seemed unethical is when Sethe decided to stay in the house that Beloved was haunting. Although they were in financial situations of course, Sethe could have been able to make the money or move out of town and away from there, who knows it could have even kept Howard and Buglar home with her. Paul D also questions Sethe and she states “ No more running—from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this earth. I took a journey and I paid for the ticket ” (Page 15). This again shows her stubborn personality and feelings of validity of her actions. But, Was it right for Sethe to have stayed? Running like she said first, from slavery brought her freedom, but had she run again could it have saved her children? Would leaving that house have helped her in the long run? By the perspective at the end of the book was she right at deciding not to run?