On Sethe's Notion of Life vs. Death
One of the themes that I found the most interesting in Beloved was Sethe’s notion that dying or going crazy can be a more favorable fate than staying alive. While Sethe is escaping slavery––separated from her children, with no idea where her husband is, and six months pregnant with another one of her children––she almost gives up. She almost lays there and lets herself die, but “the thought of herself stretched out dead while the little antelope lived on--an hour? a day? a day and a night?––in her lifeless body grieved her so” and made her keep going despite what her body wanted so badly to do––give up (Morrison 37-38). During her escape from slavery, the only things keeping Sethe alive are her children; the thought of Denver, the little antelope in her stomach, dying with her, or her three kids who went ahead of her not having access to her milk.
When Paul D. tells Sethe about Halle’s experience being forced to watch her assault and how he was last seen smearing butter all over his face, She laments about how “other people went crazy, why couldn't she? Other people's brains stopped, turned around and went on to something new, which is what must have happened to Halle” (Morrison 83). She begins to fantasize about herself and her husband going crazy together, and “how sweet that would have been: the two of them back by the milk shed, squatting by the churn, smashing cold, lumpy butter into their faces with not a care in the world” (Morrison 83-84). Yet again, Sethe is viewing an objectively terrible fate as more desirable than the one that she is cursed to––staying alive and sane. To Sethe, the life that she is forced to live––first her life as a slave, and later her life as a woman shunned by her community and viewed as a monster––is harder to bear than the thought of death.
Sethe’s reaction to seeing Schoolteacher’s hat in her yard is a hard one to understand. Sethe is in a position that no person today could possibly relate to, and she is forced to make an impossible decision.The fact that Sethe’s reaction is impossible to understand also makes it impossible to judge or condone, but it can be more easily understood when considering her notions about death in comparison to life as a slave, especially after Schoolteacher’s arrival to Sweethome. Sethe has concluded time and time again that death is an easier fate than life as a slave under Schoolteacher, and with that logic, it becomes easier to understand why she views her actions as justified and necessary. Sethe holds her position that she did the safest thing for her children, and while that might seem like an oxymoronic position to hold––one that argues that dying is “safer” than staying alive––it stays completely consistent with what Sethe has wished for herself in the past. If it wasn’t for her children, Sethe would very likely have let herself die while she was escaping slavery. In that moment dying seemed like a much easier and less painful decision than staying alive, and when faced with that decision once more–– to stay alive and become a slave or die and never live through slavery again––she comes to the conclusion that death will be a “safer” option for her children, a conclusion that she wholeheartedly believes is correct, because when faced with that same decision during her own lifetime, she has come to the realization that in some situations dying is easier and safer than staying alive.
I agree that there is something like a "logic" and "reason" behind Sethe's actions in the woodshed, but there's also the clear implication that she has never planned or anticipated doing anything like this, and that she acts spontaneously and without conscious thought in the moment itself. AFTER the bloodshed, she is unrepentant and absolutely secure in her certainty that she did what she had to do, and this makes sense as a psychological need to maintain her own sanity and be there for Denver and the boys once she's out of jail.
ReplyDeleteBut there is also a sense in which she DOES "go crazy" at the moment she sees schoolteacher's hat: the text (which is clearly free-indirect discourse representing her experience, maybe a close paraphrase of what she's explaining to Paul D when this is narrated) depicts the little hummingbirds pecking at her hair and a complete lack of forethought as she "snatches up everything that was precious to her" and commits the unthinkable act within *seconds*. She does sort of lose her mind in this moment, even if after the fact she will defend her actions.
In her view, this is likely a different kind of "lost mind" than we see with Halle, as she seems to resent the male prerogative NOT to stay sane and alive for the children while she, as you note, believes she has no choice. (It's this same logic that gives her a kind of moral authority when she defends the killing of Beloved as an act of LOVE--it's the same love that motivated her to stay alive during the escape.)
This is such a great point, I hadn't noticed this correlation until I read your blog! It seems like the similarity between the examples you provided is the lack of consciousness or feeling in the worse situation.. For Sethe, feeling and caring for other people is the part of her that has caused her misery, and the easier option is getting rid of this sensitive side. Paul D warns her not to love someone too much, and had closed himself off from others. Sethe uniquely still holds on to her strong emotions and is susceptible to more pain. To me, it makes sense why she prefers the "worse" option since it would cut off the feelings of misery. Still, she keeps herself from giving up in that regard for her children, as when she had to keep running away to help them (silencing the part of her that wants to lay down and give up. This was a great final blog post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ruby! When schoolteacher came to Cincinnati, Sethe also felt that only two outcomes were possible, either schoolteacher enslaves everyone or they go to a safe place that he can't reach (i.e. death). Despite living free in Cincinnati, The Fugitive Slave Law ensured that no matter where they ran, Sethe and her children would never have guaranteed freedom. So, Sethe realizes the only place she and her children could be absolutely free and safe from schoolteacher's grip is in death, and proceeds to protect her children from a life worse than death by attempting to escape to "the other side."
ReplyDeleteSethe views enslavement as the ultimate evil, the outcome that must be guarded against at all costs. As you said in your blog, she considers the alternatives of going insane and dying as unequivocally better than returning to a life of enslavement. In moments of unimaginable hardship, she longs for either a physical means of escape (through death) or a mental escape (through insanity). Ultimately, we see her wrestle with her decision to place the death of her child over enslavement in her desperation for Beloved's forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good connection!! Sethe's outlook seems to be ultimately pessimistic, but, when confronted by the details of what the "better" side would be (living), the other side doesn't seem so horrible in comparison. It's upsetting that something happened to her, and many others, that would drive her to that conclusion, and reading about it from Schoolteacher's point of view after hearing it from her made it all the more compelling.
ReplyDeleteI think the implication of Sethe's views on life and death allow for the horrors of slavery to be expressed more clearly to the average reader. Of course, by the time the book was written, nobody (including the author herself) had been alive during the age of slavery in the US, but Sethe's views that going crazy or dying would be VASTLY preferential to their treatment on a plantation is telling. It seems that her life philosophy, while pessimistic is quite pragmatic, and understands the gravity of such impossible evils well.
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