Submitted to: Swati Jain

Farzana Hamid
B.A. (H) English, 3rd sem
Roll no: 21/ENG/14
07/11/2022

American Literature
Internal Assessment

Q. In Beloved, Morrison alludes to the institution of slavery where the black

women are denied the rights of parenthood and the maternal love becomes the
challenge. Discuss motherhood within the context of slavery.

Ans: Peter Kolchin states that, “during the eighteenth century, slavery became
entrenched as a pervasive – and in many colonies central – component of the social
order, the dark underside of the American dream.” Slavery in America originated
with Dutch shippers selling African slaves to the colonists but when importing
slaves was no longer allowed in 1808, the South started “breeding” its own slaves.
Slaves were held, or rather enslaved, on a permanent basis and the children of a
female slave would inherit their mother’s rank. There was much to fear for women
who were enslaved, because they witnessed their lovers being taken away and were
violated through sexual abuse and rape. Morrison's novel Beloved highlights the
reality that when they were pregnant, their unborn offspring were exposed to a
similar destiny. Despite the fact that there were consensual relationships between
white men and black women, the sexual exploitation of female slaves was an
evident part of daily life during the time of slavery. Adrienne Rich also explains
how rape was even encouraged by white plantation owners and their sons could
violate the black women; their bodies, mind and soul in order to produce mulatto
slaves as they were “considered more valuable”.
Morrison in Beloved develops the idea that maternal bonds can stunt or even
obviate a woman’s individuation or sense of self. Women are ultimately defined as
different from men for one simple reason: motherhood. But In Beloved, mothers
are not shown as perfect beings instead they exhibit unwavering affection for their
children, sometimes in ways that are rather shocking. Morrison's writing clarifies
motherhood's realities by demonstrating how black women's lives are distorted by
the harsh remnants of slavery. Mothers would begin parenting with broken spirits
and shattering self-perceptions as a result of abusive treatment. In addition to
raising their young girls and educating them about the challenges that can arise due
to their gender, mothers also have a responsibility to shield their child from the
injustices of racism. In the novel beloved, despite being a mother who exhibits
inner strength, Sethe becomes immobilized. Sethe sacrifices everything for her
children; she even kills her newborn child so she won't have to endure the same
brutality of slavery that she (Sethe) suffered. She commits a deed that makes her an
outcast in her community as she sacrifices her pride for her child’s sake. The story
describes how she sells her body to pay for the name "Beloved" to be inscribed on
her child's gravestone. Thus, as a result of slavery and the torture she endures,
Sethe is incapable of appreciating or seeing her own body as anything valuable.
Therefore, she "chooses" to sell her body rather than taking the money or getting it
in another manner. Sethe’s love for her children is limitless which is evident :

“Too thick, he said. My love was too thick. What he know about it?....I have felt
what it felt like and nobody walking or stretched out is going to make you feel it
too. Not you, not none of mine, and when I tell you you mine, I also mean I’m
yours. I wouldn’t draw breath without my children.” (Beloved ,203)

The mother thus becomes more than just an individual mother — she serves as a
metaphor for the mother of all Black people. In a way, Morrison imparts her
understanding of racism and enslavement, which is evident in her novels'
depictions of motherhood. Morrison examines the mother-child relationship while
portraying supernatural scenes in which the reader sees a dead baby come back to
life to show the guilt of having killed her maternal instincts:

“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.” (beloved, chapter 1)

In the opening sentence of the novel, the house numbered 124 is personified as the
ghost of beloved that haunts it.

“It's gonna hurt, now," said Amy. "Anything dead coming back to life hurts.”
(beloved, chapter 3)

In this quote, Amy is speaking about Sethe's weathered feet, but her words also
foreshadow what's to come. The words "anything dead coming back to life hurts"
can easily be applied to Beloved, who returns to her mother and sister hurt,
confused, and vengeful about her death.

Mother Sethe has been through awful things and one of the cruelest is described as
follows:

Sethe: After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk.
That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told
Mrs. Garner on em. She had that lump and couldn’t speak but her eyes
rolled out tears. Them boys found out I told on em. Schoolteacher
made one open up my back, and when it closed it made a tree. It grows
there still.
Paul.D: They used cowhide on you?
Sethe: And they took my milk.
Paul.D: They beat you and you was pregnant?
Sethe: And they took my milk! (Beloved 16-17)

Sethe is a fiercely resilient lady who has endured the cruelty that was a common
feature of slavery. Her greatest concern is that her children would endure slavery's
worst aspects after she has. Thus, Morrison examines motherhood in its most
denied form, the mother enslaved, reduced to a broodmare. Sethe’s initial bonding
with her children has occurred at the ironically ‘sweet home’, where slaves are
allowed to marry and have families. These bonds resurge with terrifying strength
as Sethe attempts to return the babies to perhaps a collective mother body, to
devour them back into the security of womb/tomb death much as a mother cat will
eat her babies as the ultimate act of protection. Morrison denies Sethe even the
ability to fantasize about her future in terms of suicide, which in its destruction of
self means at least that a self has been acknowledged. Even when released from
slavery and jail, Sethe goes on internalising slavery; she simply holds the past at a
bay for her three surviving children. Therefore, Morrison illustrates the intricacy of
motherhood as she shows the horrifying act of a woman murdering her own kid.
She describes the events from the perspective of a mother, letting us to understand
the many dimensions of parenting without becoming emotional. Although it is
cruel to kill your child, one must consider Sethe's motivations and the
circumstances surrounding her action. Only a mother knows the cost of mothering.
The strength it takes to break the bonds of even the normal amount of guilt
incurred in the process is prodigious; to break the bonds of guilt that Sethe carries
takes many women. Denied normal motherhood by the culture that enslaves her,
Sethe carries mother instinct to an absurd and grotesque length. Ultimately, the
novel tells us that the period of slavery examines the death of the maternal in a
woman so that her self might live.
 Bibliography

● Morrison Toni. “Beloved” in Vintage Classics, published by Vintage 2010

● Tony Paul Caeser. “Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” Journo
Article, Published By: UNESP Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita
Filho

● https://www.jstor.org

● Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery. 1993. Canada: HarperCollins, 1995.

● Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born- Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New

York:

● Stephanie A. Demetrapoulos. Critical Essay. “Maternaal Bonds as Devourers of

Women’s Individuation in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”