Was Sethe's attempt to kill her children (and her success in killing Beloved) to save them from the horrors of slavery 'heroic'?

When Mrs. Mahon read us an excerpt from The Black Book, about Margaret Garner, the runaway slave woman who attempted to kill her children so they wouldn't be taken from her and put into slavery, and the inspiration for Morrison's book Beloved, I won't lie - I was pretty horrified. Could it be that something existed at one point that was so horrible, it made it okay for mothers to murder their children, as a way out? I didn't think it possible. And then she went on to read that abolitionists hailed Garner a hero - I couldn't believe it. And now that I've read a majority of Beloved, though I by no means consider Sethe 'heroic' for doing it, I have a better understanding of why she did.

I'll admit it - the fact that I'm white, and because I have never gone through an experience even remotely like it (thank goodness), makes me pretty ignorant to the horrors of slavery. A history textbook can only describe so much. So one could understand how it might be difficult for me to sympathize with Sethe for feeling it necessary to kill her children to 'protect them'. But as I got through more of the book, more of the truth came out. Sethe had been brutally beaten and raped - the cuts from the whip so deep in her back that even 18 years later, the scar reminds her everyday of what schoolteacher and his nephews did to her. And this was all while she was pregnant with Denver, right after sending her kids off to Baby Suggs, to escape schoolteacher's harsh rule. The tree-like scar on her back is a constant reminder of how they abused her, and for that, she is constantly living in her horrific past - something she never wants any of her children to go through. So when schoolteacher and the others come to 124 to take her children, to Sethe, killing them seemed like the only way to save them. It wasn't something she thought about, it was completely impulsive. "And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew." (Beloved, 163). If she had left any time for thinking, she wouldn't have been able to go through with it. She just "dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them." (163). If anything, I would call it an act of desperateness, not heroism.

In an essay written by Shelby Larrick, from the English Department at Millikin University in Illinois (link here: http://faculty.millikin.edu/~moconner/beloved/essays/Larrick-Psychological-essay2.pdf), Larrick explains how important the rape scene in Beloved truly is, to gain an insight into the mind of Sethe and her rationalization for trying to kill her children. Larrick quotes another source that says, "For Sethe, being brutally overworked, maimed, or killed is subordinate to the overarching horror of being raped and 'dirtied' by whites; even dying at the hands of one's mother is subordinate to rape" (Larrick 2). Another source Larrick cites supports that claim, saying "Sethe believes death to be a kinder alternative than rape" (Larrick 2). So in Sethe's mentality, she believes she was saving her daughter from a fate worse than death. Again, though I do understand that Sethe felt her actions were necessary, I have trouble accepting these actions as 'heroic'.

Merriam-Webster defines 'heroic' as 'supremely noble or self-sacrificing'. Yes, murdering your child to keep them safe from a greater evil is extremely difficult - a sacrifice, even. I am not doubting or questioning Sethe's love for her children in the least. But I have the belief that killing one's children is not noble, no matter the circumstances. Again, maybe it goes back to the fact that I have no real idea of how awful slavery really was. But I just cannot accept Sethe's actions as 'self-sacrificing'. Someone who sacrifices oneself for the good of others is self-sacrificing. I'm not sure what to call someone who sacrifices someone else to try to save them, but calling them a hero is going a little too far, in my opinion. So in conclusion, reading Beloved has given me a better understanding that slavery was so horrible that it drove a mother, like Margaret Garner or Sethe, to kill their children, feeling they had no other way out. Though I don't see it as heroic, I do see it as a necessity out of desperateness.

-Rachel H.