Question 4

A very pivotal part of the novel is the chapter that explains Sethe's attempt to murder her four children in order to save them from slavery. Sethe was able to escape with all 3 of her children, while pregnant with her fourth. However, Baby Suggs had 8 children, 7 of which were taken from her. This is similar to Sethe's past as well. Sethe's mother gave birth to several children but she only kept Sethe. Unlike Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother threw her other children overboard since they were fathered by white men.

However, Baby Suggs did have one child that she was able to keep, and that was Halle. Halle was Sethe's unofficial husband, and he cared about his mother more than anything. The only reason Baby Suggs let Halle buy her freedom, was because she knew how much it meant to him. I believe that this has a very strong parallel to how Sethe feels about her children. Baby Suggs lost all of her children, whereas Sethe fough to save her children. First, when she escaped from slavery with them, and second, when she attempted to kill them. Baby Suggs could have fought to buy Halle out of slavery. My question is...why didn't she?

What really struck me was the way that Baby Suggs treated Sethe after "the misery." She simply took the dead baby away from Sethe, and handed her Denver to nurse. And when Sethe immediately put Denver to her chest, Baby Suggs started screaming at her. "Baby Suggs slammed her fist on the table and shouted, 'Clean up! Clean yourself up!'" (Morrison, page 152) I would have thought that since Baby Suggs had lost all of her children, that she would have a bit more sympathy for Sethe after she tried to do something so horrific, just to keep her kids out of slavery. In a way, I think Baby Suggs resents Sethe for having children to love.

Question 2

Question 2

Throughout the book we have learned that Paul D’s experiences as a slave has been full of torture and horrific events. In the novel Beloved, Morrison makes Paul D’s journey that of to define manhood. Throughout his life Paul D’s idea of manhood was slowly destroyed by slavery. While at Sweet Home, under Mr. Garner, Paul D believed being a man is not naturally given but bestowed upon by the white man. But when Mr. Garner dies and Schoolteacher takes over power over Sweet Home, Paul D must redefine manhood. Unlike Mr. Garner, who thought of slaves as men, Schoolteacher considers slaves to be sub-human and animal like. Paul D now just becomes nothing more than a product to the white man. When Schoolteacher sells Paul D to another slave owner, his belief of being a product grows stronger. By selling him, Paul D views that as stripping away his manhood and making him an animal. Soon Paul D is sent to Georgia, where he is part of a chain gang. Once again Morrison, by having his part of a chain gang, takes away his manhood and shows that the white man has control over every slaves. With his manhood shattered, Paul D manages to run away.

Once he gets to 124, Paul D begins to move away from his past to imagine a future with Sethe. But his past haunts him as his love for Sethe is tested by Beloved.

“Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. 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. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left for the next one.” (Morrison, page 45)

Here Paul D is testing Sethe’s vision and her love for her children. Because of his past, he understands the danger in loving someone or caring about something. He views love as something that can be taken away by the white man, just like his manhood. I believe that his experience makes him guarded when it comes to opening up, and that is why he sees Sethe’s love for her kids as a danger. But I think the time he has spent with Sethe has allowed him to open up. In the end he sees how much Sethe is suffering from losing Beloved, and he gets over his insecurity of love.

Question 3:
"Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it. Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all." Chapter 6, pg. 62
I feel that this quote greatly describes Denver’s personality before Beloved and when Beloved first arrives. Denver is a very self-centered child, not only did she try to get Paul D to leave because of her jealousy of his connection to Sethe with Sweet Home, but she only ever wants to hear stories about herself and when Beloved does arrive she feels Beloved must have come for Denver. Since Denver felt she kept Beloved’s spirit the most company during its time in the house.
Denver shows many selfish acts in the book prior to Beloved’s arrival. When Denver describes the place she has to herself in the woods she talks about how she loved a perfume her mother had to much that she stole it and brought it there. Also, Denver reluctance towards Paul D staying isn’t just and act of selfishness but just a spoiled personality—she first breaks into tears saying Beloved’s ghost has driven everyone away from them, but once Paul D drives Beloved away from them for Denver she gets even more upset because now she really has no one. Denver had that opportunity to be thankful of both Beloved’s departure and Paul D’s company, but she just found a way to get more upset.

"'The picture is still there and what's more, if you go there -- you who never was there -- if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you. So, Denver, you can't never go there. Never. Because even though it's all over -- over and done with -- it's going to always be there waiting for you.'' Chapter 3, pg. 36
This quote is Sethe telling Denver that she should never want to go to Sweet Home and never will, because if she does all of this will happen for her. Even though Denver feels like this is what she wants, to be apart of the conversations and that memories and this collective unconscious it isn’t, it is exactly the opposite of what Sethe ever wants to happen.
Going back to the quote, when Beloved shows up Denver’s personality changes from selfishness and self-pity to nurturing and loving, as though she is Sethe to one of her kids. Denver cleans up after Beloved, feeds her, helps wash her and even speaks for her at times. Denver shared a room with Beloved and held onto her every word—something extremely unlike Denver. As the story progresses and Sethe becomes entranced with Beloved Denver realizes she needs to step up, seeing as Sethe lost her job and Paul D left. Denver gets a job and goes back out into the community seeking help for whats left of her family. The community opens up to Denver, something they never used to do and Denver is able to help Sethe and Beloved.
This complete change in Denver is solely because of Beloved appearance in the book, and I feel as though Beloved was Denver’s door into the ‘collective unconscious’ everyone else had through slavery. Although Denver did not get hit or whipped or anything as horrible as the others, the others were changed through slavery just as Denver was changed through Beloved. Denver’s whole household was changed, she raised Beloved, loved her like she shouldn’t have and then lost her just as Sethe has her other children. Beloved was representative of rememory, slavery and the collective unconscious everyone including Denver now has.

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?

“O Lord, she thought, deliver me. Unless care free, motherlover was a killer.” (Beloved, page132)

In many ways Baby Sugg’s relationship with her kids is a contrast to the relationship that Sethe has with her kids. Baby Suggs experience as a slave included the loss of seven of her eight children and also included serving her master sexually. Baby Suggs spent the rest of her life in bed, mourning over everything that happened while she was a slave. Unlike Baby Suggs, Sethe understood that while she was at Sweet Home, her children did not belong to her, which intern made her not love them. This made Sethe fight for her kids and she escaped Sweet Home.

When comparing both relationships you can see that Baby Suggs never fought for her children. I believe that this is the underling difference between Baby Suggs and Sethe. From the beginning, Sethe wanted to be a nursing mother, while she was at Sweet Home but Schoolteacher and his nephews took way that right from her by stealing her milk. By not being there for her kids and with Sethe’s experience as a slave her maternal protective impulse grew stronger, when Schoolteacher came to take her and her kids back to Sweet Home. To protect them and to keep them out of slavery, Sethe attempts to murder her children.

Question 2:
“Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. 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. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left for the next one.” (Morrison, page 45)

This quotation adequately explains Paul D’s feelings about love. In this situation, Sethe and Paul D are arguing about Denver. When Sethe starts defending Denver, Paul D chastises Sethe in his mind for giving so much love to the child. Although Paul D has come to Sethe after escaping from slavery, he is still incredibly scared of being brought back to slavery. He doesn’t believe that loving anything, let alone children, after being in slavery is reckless. He has experienced the worst that slavery has to offer and he refuses to make himself vulnerable again. But, I also think that he does not understand the undying love Sethe has for her children. When Stamp Paid revealed to Paul D what Sethe did to her children, he couldn’t believe it. He kept saying “That ain’t her mouth.” (Morrison, page 154) Yet, later he confront Sethe about the incident where she explains everything. She had allowed herself to love her kids when they were out of slavery because she knew they were hers.

“Look like I loved em more after I got here. Or maybe I couldn’t love em proper in Kentucky because they wasn’t mine to love. But when I got here, when I jumped down off that wagon, there wasn’t nobody I couldn’t love if I wanted to.” (Morrison, page 162)

I included this quotation because I believe there is a parallel between this re-memory and Paul D’s unspoken warning about love. Sethe had not fully loved her children while she was still a slave, which made sense to her at the time. When she was finally free, she opened her heart to her children for the first time since she had given birth to them. Unfortunately, Sethe’s love backfired when Schoolteacher showed up to take her children to be slaves. She followed her first instinct and attempted to murder all four of her children.
What is interesting to me is that even after this horrific experience, where her oldest daughter was killed, and she spent time in jail with Denver, is that she was again able to open up and love her children with her whole heart. Paul D, without having done something so terrifying, knows in his heart just how dangerous love can be for a slave.

But, even Paul D let his guard down towards the end of the novel. He had left 124 after hearing about Sethe’s attempted murder on her children. But, he eventually returned. He found Sethe lying in Baby Suggs’ bed and he tells her that he will not let her die on him. He explains to her how she puts together the pieces of him that are broken, that with her, he can forget about Sweet Home, and the atrocities of slavery. In my opinion he is opening up himself to love Sethe, against his own judgement, but he knows that he needs her, and she needs him.

The idea of love is present in differen ways throughout the novel, Beloved, by Toni Morrison. However, love is expressed in several extreme ways. Use the four questions below to discuss the ideas of love as it pertains to the main characters: Sethe, Paul D, Denver, Baby Suggs, Beloved, etc.

1. In what ways does Morrison portray Sethe's love for her children as twisted, or unethical? Does this representation give the reader a clear view of Sethe's personality?

2. We have learned some of the harsh torture that Paul D has been through. Do his experiences allow him to love stronger, or is he gaurded when it comes to opening up? How does he make his opinion on love clear to Sethe? Give specific examples and explain fully.

3. We as readers can tell that Denver is a very self-centered person. But, when Beloved shows up, how does Denver react? How is her reaction contradictory to her personality? Explain fully.

4. How is Baby Suggs' relationship with her children different than the relationship that Sethe has with her kids? How does Baby Suggs' relationship with Halle contrast with her other children? Explain.