Theme Of Love In Morrison's Beloved By Toni Morrison

Usually when we refer to the word 'freedom ' we always emphasize on 'freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of liberty. Freedom of love is always unvoiced as one of the main characteristic of life. And as we read Morrison 's book 'Beloved ', she depicts Sethe as a slave mother who escapes slavery by fleeing the plantation, and, for the first time, has a taste of freedom, and most importantly, to be free to love. Furthermore, that taste of freedom to love becomes compulsive when she finally reunites with her kids. She is able to freely love her kids, and determines to have a nurturing relationship with her them. Something that she was desperately yearning for. However, she was faced with a difficult choice when Schoolteacher …show more content…
In other words, in order for one to be able to display good caring qualities, they have be learned. Thus, if we look at Sethe infanticide, although it was clear in her mind that the only way to save her children was by killing them, it also give a sense that perhaps she could have chosen otherwise if she had learned how to care. In the novel, Sethe came to the plantation as a slave when she was thirteen, and she remembers that slavery has denied her a relationship with her own mother and determines to have a nurturing relationship with her own children. She grew up and became mother without a mother who shows her love and care for her, where she could have learned those qualities, and exchange them with her kids. But she did not let that repugnant past of her stop her from loving and care for her children. Like Paul D said 'it was dangerous for a slave woman to love anything, especially her children '. Sethe saw her children as her property, and lives she has made, therefore she did not have to learn how to love and care in order for her to care for …show more content…
As a former slave and a mother, it is understandable for her to prevent her child to be enslaved because when we look at what she has gone through. On the other hand, thinking about the difference between the child unalienable rights, to live and to be free, made killing the child not just, because, and even though she was doing it out of love, to distinguish which one should prevail over the other should not be up to only Sethe. The baby should have had her say in such decision. With that said, the complexity of such act made it difficult to see it through one lens of ethical