#5_Enslaved by Beloved

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s "Beloved" by Terry Paul Caesar

In Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s "Beloved” by Terry Paul Caesar, Caesar compares mothers to being similar to slaves. Caesar makes a comparison between Cassy, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Sethe. He states that “Cassy can be comprehended as being enslaved by little Eliza”, which is the same with Sethe being enslaved by Beloved. The author explains how mothers can be slaves to their daughters and how daughters can be slaves to their mothers. But in Beloved, Sethe is more of a slave to Beloved. Caesar mentions the part of the book where Sethe cuts Beloved’s throat in comparison to Cassy killing her daughter. In the book, she did this because she wanted to protect her daughter from being taken into slavery. However, Caesar indicates that Sethe killed her own daughter “to protect her own self-possession”. This could be seen in Beloved, when reading it through the feminist lens. The author uses Sethe’s words, “Freeing yourself was one thing" and "claiming ownership of that freed self was another" in order to make a very valid interpretation of the text (Beloved, 95). Sethe was afraid of being dominated by motherhood. The author questions if Sethe killed her child in order to save herself rather than to save her child from what was yet to come. Sethe needs to examine who she really is in order figure out what it means to be a mother to Beloved.

Furthermore, Caesar describes daughters being as a disruption. We can see this in Beloved when Beloved has a sexual encounter with Paul D and when Denver saves Sethe from being choked by Beloved. Even if it was either Beloved’s own intention or an accident, she is very troublesome to Sethe’s life. She does those things out of rage and jealousy, which could also be seen as revenge. However, Beloved comes back in order to show Sethe how much she really cares for her even though Sethe did kill her when she was younger. Moreover, Sethe can’t define what it means to be a mother and Beloved can’t define what it means to be a daughter, they both differ from each other.