Whether it be as individuals, as a society, or as a species, we strive to gain power. We gain personal power when we have confidence in ourselves and our ideas, we gain power over others when a political party wins a majority in an election, and we gain power over the rest of the biosphere in our endeavors to conquer and tame the wildlife around us. That being said, when one abuses the power they are given, others suffer. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, we see the power of white people and slave owners lorded above black people (both former slaves and free people), and the devastating psychological effects that abuse has over them for many years to come. However, we also see an abuse of power from someone we would never expect. Beloved, the supernatural
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However, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship is anything but symbiotic. Sethe only suffers to appease Beloved’s malevolence and lives to serve her, but never earns anything back other than a temporary lull in Beloved’s fiendish outbursts. Although her actions are inexcusable, one can argue that Beloved’s purpose was not to be an abuser, but an avenger. Sethe killed her toddler and attempted to kill her other children for fear of their indoctrination into slavery. Although Sethe’s need to save her children from the horrors of slavery is understandable, killing them to help them escape those horrors is unforgivable. Not only is it irredeemable to end another’s life, let alone your own child’s, but it also involves abusing your power over them as their caregiver and guardian. Not only is it abusive to Beloved, whose life Sethe ended, but also to Buglar, Howard, and Denver, who had to live with the grief and fear of knowing their mother murdered one of her children and was intending to murder them too. In this way, the mental repercussions of the abuse by Schoolteacher and Sethe’s other masters caused Sethe to become an abuser of her own children, both physically and mentally. And even when Sethe apologizes and tries to explain herself and her actions all those years ago, Beloved refuses to listen. Although her size and
However, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship is anything but symbiotic. Sethe only suffers to appease Beloved’s malevolence and lives to serve her, but never earns anything back other than a temporary lull in Beloved’s fiendish outbursts. Although her actions are inexcusable, one can argue that Beloved’s purpose was not to be an abuser, but an avenger. Sethe killed her toddler and attempted to kill her other children for fear of their indoctrination into slavery. Although Sethe’s need to save her children from the horrors of slavery is understandable, killing them to help them escape those horrors is unforgivable. Not only is it irredeemable to end another’s life, let alone your own child’s, but it also involves abusing your power over them as their caregiver and guardian. Not only is it abusive to Beloved, whose life Sethe ended, but also to Buglar, Howard, and Denver, who had to live with the grief and fear of knowing their mother murdered one of her children and was intending to murder them too. In this way, the mental repercussions of the abuse by Schoolteacher and Sethe’s other masters caused Sethe to become an abuser of her own children, both physically and mentally. And even when Sethe apologizes and tries to explain herself and her actions all those years ago, Beloved refuses to listen. Although her size and