#7_Sethe's Relationship with Beloved

Text: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Critical Lens: Feminist Lens

After reading and analyzing Beloved, I have gotten a clear interpretation of each character. They each have different mindsets when they are in certain situations. This book has helped me learn that one may not be who they proclaim to be. Sethe has problems she had to deal with throughout the novel. One of these problems was an internal conflict. Where she was not able to understand why she was being haunted by her dead daughter. However, her dead daughter resurrected and happened to be the beautiful Beloved. This young woman was the daughter that Sethe herself once killed. Beloved came back in order to retrieve the mother she was not able to live a life with. Also she wanted to acquire the love she never had the chance to receive from her because of that absence.

Many people struggling with the feeling of love do not know what they are doing. For example, Beloved is blinded by Sethe and her desire to be by her side at all times that she starts to choke her own mother. Moreover, jealousy is another feature that can lead to spiteful actions. Because of Beloved’s resentment, she also entered her mother’s boyfriend’s room and had sex with him. She did this because she did not appreciate the fact that Sethe had been paying more attention to Paul D than to her. She would do these things for revenge or to be like Sethe. Beloved said to Denver, “Make him go away,” when Paul D entered Sethe’s room (157). She feels as if Sethe is being taken away from her. Beloved thinks that Sethe belongs to her.

Furthermore, Sethe then starts realizing that Beloved is the daughter she once killed when Beloved starts humming a song that Sethe used to sing to her children. It took Sethe a really long time to realize this because she says that Paul D was a distraction. Beloved then takes over Sethe after Paul D leaves her. Sethe starts losing weight and Beloved starts gaining weight. Sethe begins acting like a child and Beloved begins acting like a mother. This allows Beloved to take advantage of her mother in a way that will make Sethe feel remorse and shame for what she did to her own daughter. Beloved was “draining Sethe’s life force away”.