Who would have the courage to end the life of their own child, a being so innocent and incapable of doing any harm to those around them? Would you be able to cope with the defamation and ridicule bestowed upon you by a community that should stand with you and not against you, or would you just shrink back in fear? For Sethe, this is what she was faced with daily. Never being able have a loving community that would be willing to understand her circumstance and not judge her actions. To take the life of one's own child for the sake of giving them freedom is in itself a hard decision to make which can only be understood if it's given the time.
Love can make people do some crazy things, even kill. To kill for the sake of protecting someone you love is an act that is considered to be shameful, simply because it's not understood. Yes, it seems harsh. At the same time, there are underlying factors as to why a person might go to an extremity such as this. In Beloved by Toni Morrison, Sethe "takes things to the limit" by slitting Beloved's throat, an act so ferocious that it left her an outsider within her own community. "Years ago - when 124 was alive - she had women friends, men friends from all around to share grief with. Then there was no one, for they would not visit her while the baby ghost filled the house, and she returned their disapproval with the potent pride of the mistreated." (112). Taking her child's life caused strife, not love, between Sethe and the Black community and instead of sticking by her side, they chose to leave her to tackle the "ghost" on her own.
The death of Beloved wasn't something that came about suddenly. It was planned by Sethe; she didn't want her children to endure the hardships of slavery as she had. "It ain't my job to know what's worse. It's my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible." (194). For Sethe, the only way for her children to obtain the freedom that she wanted for them was to see to it that they weren't held captive in slavery. Her willingness to take the lives of her children so they could be free is something that most people wouldn't dare dream of. Sethe's attempt to murder her children was only successful with Beloved. Being a baby, it was very difficult for her to understand that what her mother did to her - kill her - wasn't done because she didn't love her, she did it because she did love her. "She wasn't even two years old when she died. Too little to understand...But if she'd only come, I could make it clear to her." (5). Sethe then goes on to state that the "spell" that Beloved cast upon the house was "No more powerful than the way I loved her." (5). Love like that is SO hard to understand if a person can't relate. Even if you couldn't take the life of your own child, put yourself in Sethe's shoes. Could you be willing to choose death instead of life for the one whom you gave life, just as Sethe had? Could you handle being slandered by a community who once welcomed you as they own but now view you as a murder? Shouldn't a mother's love, a love that would lead one to end their child's life, be enough to quiet "a town full of disgust"? (5).
It's not the job of anyone to tell a parent, a mother, whether or not her decision to take her child's life for the sake of giving them freedom, was "right" or "wrong". When inquiring why Sethe did what she did, Paul D states that, "What you did was wrong, Sethe...There could have been a way. Some other way...You got two feet, Sethe, not four". (194). Sethe responds by answering, "I should have gone on back there? Taken my babies back there?". She then says, "What way?". (194). This dialogue is somewhat out of sequence but the conversation can be put together like any other: Paul D: Who are you to take the life of your child? There could have been another way out. Sethe: I did what I did because I didn't see any other way out. To be judged based on decisions that may not seem "moral" in the eyes of anyone but the person being judged, is painful. It makes the judged feel low and all alone, while those casting judgment never stop to think about the affects that those criticisms have on the "outsider".
For the one who's life is stripped away, only confusion remains. Not only is Sethe criticized by the Black community for murdering Beloved, she is also criticized by Beloved herself. Her feelings of anger and rage are derived from not knowing - not understanding - why her mother chose to kill her and not the other children. "She left me behind...I was looking for this place I could be in...I cannot lose her again...". (89, 77, 250). Not only did she want a place where she could feel a part of and close to Sethe and find answers to why she was killed, she also wanted to "fix her"; let her know that although she had to endure slander from the community, everything was going to be alright. That is why Beloved came back. In contrast, Sethe thought differently about having to explain herself to Beloved. "Beloved, she is my daughter. She is mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will and I don't have to explain a thing". (236). She later goes on to say, "I'll explain to her, even though I don't have to. Why I did it. How if I hadn't killed her she would have died and that was something I could not bear to happen to her. When I explain it she'll understand, because she understands everything already. I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended to a child, a daughter". Sethe never felt that she had to explain Beloved's death to anyone; she was set on that, that by killing her baby girl "she had done what was right because it came from true love". (296).
The courage to kill and the courage to forgive were two things that Sethe and the towns people of Bluestone Road had to deal with. Although many people viewed the act of Sethe taking her baby girl's life as immoral and without remorse, there were some, like Ella, who chose to look past what was "prideful and misdirected" (302), simply because she understood what it was like to be an outsider. "Nobody loved her and she wouldn't have liked it if they had...Her puberty was spent in a house where she was shared by her father and son, whom she called the lowest yet'" (301). That likeness - that feeling of being on the outside looking in - is what gave Ella the courage to openly state that despite everything that happened within that shed, with Sethe and the killing of Beloved, she deserved a second chance, and by doing that, "convinced the others that rescue was in order". "When Ella heard 124 was occupied by something-or-other beating up on Sethe, it infuriated her...Whatever Sethe had done, Ella didn't like the idea of of the past errors taking possession of the present". (302). What Sethe did was in no way considered "motherly", so for someone to stand beside a murderer, well...that takes courage.
To learn to show compassion towards someone despite the choices they made, showcases a growth in character. In the eyes of just about all of the people on Bluestone Road, Sethe was depicted as a monster. They chose only to see her faults and not what she had to offer as a human being. Yes, people do things that not everyone would agree with, but that doesn't make them any less of a person. Everyone has dealt with things in life, albeit different. Those things that we've dealt with and maybe still deal with are what make us different, but the fact that there is a struggle within each of us is what makes us alike.
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