The other day my friend asked me to think about whom I would take a bullet for. Obvious answer: my sister. I would automatically jump in front of a fatal shot in order to save her life. But had I known that I couldn’t jump in front of that bullet, would I have killed her in order to save her from a painful, long, suffering death? My answer, no. Under no circumstance would I be able to kill my sister. The guilt would never go away and the thought that by some miracle she could survive would keep me from becoming a murderer. Although this situation is extreme it is similar to the one that Sethe finds herself in. Having escaped the tortures of slavery at Sweet Home and the schoolteacher Sethe is determined to have a better, safer, and happier life. She has four children that she loves dearly and like any good mother she wants to protect them from harm. Sethe knows the struggles of being a slave and fears everyday that she will have to go back. Yes, Sethe is protecting her children from the schoolteacher and slavery when she attempts to murder all four children and successfully murders the second youngest, Beloved, however was it a heroic action?
According to dictionary.com a hero is a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hero). So someone that completes a heroic action displays the character or attributes of a hero: extraordinarily courageous, bold, and determined (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heroic). Along with the above definitions, Sethe’s actions would be considered heroic. Her children meant the world to her; she went through so much in order to keep them safe. From the moment she decided to kill them to after she attempted to murder them her mind was only on their well-being. She wanted to keep her children out of the same pain and agony that she experienced in slavery. I believe that a hero is someone who sacrifices the most important things to them in order to keep others out of future harm. Many believe that the most important thing is one’s own life but Sethe loves her kids so much that they are the most important things to her. Sacrificing their lives was like taking her own life. Her actions were extremely heroic which was confirmed by the sufferings that came after it. Not only did Sethe lose her daughter Beloved, but her two oldest sons ran away from home and her youngest daughter Denver distanced herself from Sethe. She loses everything she has in one moment.
Although I will never be able to understand the exact situation that Sethe is in because I have never been in slavery or ever physically harmed in any way, I believe that Sethe’s actions were heroic. I could never imagine killing my own children, another human being that I gave life to, but I could imagine doing anything to keep them from harm. Many slaves die while working, the conditions are unimaginable from the whippings to unbelievable work hours to the amount of food they are given. The nutrients are low and the work is hard. I would never wish slavery upon anyone and neither does Sethe. She tries to keep her kids out of it by running away from Sweet Home. And with the schoolteacher quickly approaching she had to make a quick decision. I cannot say that that would have been my decision but I do respect her for making such a rash but self-sacrificing decision.
In an essay written by James Phelan (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_2_32/ai_54637198/), he describes that Sethe’s decision is stunning and could be the most important moment of the book. This single decision shapes the rest of Sethe’s life; isolation, guilt and doubt are bound to follow a major decision like this. Phelan states that Morrison establishes slavery as an abstract of evil. The reader is given enough information to understand what could happen to Sethe and her children if she is taken back to Sweet Home. As a reader, I sympathize with Sethe’s situation and her fear of having to go back into slavery. The single image of the whipped back that we viewed in the beginning of this unit was enough for me to realize that slavery wasn’t an easy journey. Once freed, I could never imagine Sethe ever wanting to go back into slavery. I believe that although it’s not the decision I would have made it was heroic. A hero sacrifices everything she has, and Sethe does exactly that by killing her child.
-Priyanka
Before examining the text closer, I didn't consider Sethe's actions heroic at all. In the same way, I did not believe that her murder of Beloved was justified in any circumstance. However, who am I to judge?
ReplyDeleteAs Priyanka notes, a hero by definition is a “person of distinguished courage or ability” (dictionary.com). Did Sethe really killed Beloved out of spite? No, she did it out of unconditional love for the children. Maybe murder in our minds is not a noble actions, but Sethe’s circumstance was a different case. Having lived through the horrifying slavery herself, she wanted to everything possible to prevent her children from experiencing the same pain that still haunts her years after gaining her freedom. Sethe considers her children the only “parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful (Beloved 152), and she wanted to make sure that her children remained pure. Sethe knew that they would be dirtied by slavery on Earth if she let them go with the school teacher, so it took all of her strength to attempt to murder them so that they can have a blank, clean slate in the after life. On page163 it says “I stopped him” (referring to the school teacher taking her children into slavery). “I took and put my babies where they’d be safe” (Beloved 163-164). The “safe place” refers to Heaven, and Sethe considers Heaven definitely a spiritual, Holy place where her children can be safe and with whom she’ll eventually encounter again once she passes away. This is why Sethe embodies a true hero, she sacrificed herself for the betterment of her children.
~Eugenia