Ambiguity
The end of Part 1 of Beloved reveals a rather shocking moment in Sethe's (and Beloved's) history. Sethe is caught in the process of killing off her children to save them from a life of slavery.
I find it interesting that this scene, unlike the other books we've read this year, greys the morality of both black and white characters. In Native Son, we root for Bigger as the protagonist as he resists the antagonists: Jon, the court, etc. In Invisible Man, the narrator faces the evils of multiple organizations that try to use him. However, in this part of Beloved, Morrison leads us to question if Sethe is completely good, and the four horsemen are completely bad.
Up to this point, we've seen Sethe's struggles as she escapes Safe Home, which painted her as the protagonist struggling against slavery, an evil practice. Here, though, as she tries to murder her children, we question her judgement. Even if her intentions were good, was this horrifying scene really necessary?
A smaller note, when the shed door is opened, Stamp Paid immediately rushes over to stop Sethe from killing Denver. This goes against our perception of the horsemen as ruthless, evil slaveholders, and paints them in a slightly brighter light. Of course, this doesn't mean the horsemen have suddenly become morally good; they're still slaveholders, but now we've seen they're not completely evil.
I find it interesting that this scene, unlike the other books we've read this year, greys the morality of both black and white characters. In Native Son, we root for Bigger as the protagonist as he resists the antagonists: Jon, the court, etc. In Invisible Man, the narrator faces the evils of multiple organizations that try to use him. However, in this part of Beloved, Morrison leads us to question if Sethe is completely good, and the four horsemen are completely bad.
Up to this point, we've seen Sethe's struggles as she escapes Safe Home, which painted her as the protagonist struggling against slavery, an evil practice. Here, though, as she tries to murder her children, we question her judgement. Even if her intentions were good, was this horrifying scene really necessary?
A smaller note, when the shed door is opened, Stamp Paid immediately rushes over to stop Sethe from killing Denver. This goes against our perception of the horsemen as ruthless, evil slaveholders, and paints them in a slightly brighter light. Of course, this doesn't mean the horsemen have suddenly become morally good; they're still slaveholders, but now we've seen they're not completely evil.
A crucial clarification: Stamp Paid is NOT one of the "horsemen"--he is an agent of the Underground Railroad and a pillar of the local black community, one of the "crazy old n-words" that is depicted so dismissively by the slave-catcher in his narration. (It's easy not to recognize him in this description, or later when he's called "boy" by the slave-catcher.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd propose that Bigger Thomas is a morally challenging character, as well: not every reader finds his "accidental" murder of Mary and cold and calculated rape and murder of Bessie to be sympathetic, and many readers' "rooting for" him is complicated in a way that's quite similar to Sethe. They are both "cornered" in an impossible situation and react in violent and extreme ways. We don't approve of their choices, necessarily, but we're aware that attempting to judge such a situation is problematic.
This is interesting. I don't really agree that Beloved "greys the morality of both black and white characters." I feel like it creates a line between the two instead. The four horsemen are slave catchers and are trying to bring back these people who want to live a life free from forced labor and brutal punishments. They are the embodiment of slavery and therefore bad. Although the action was terrible, Sethe's intentions were good in wanting to keep her children from a life of slavery. It may not have been the best choice, but what other options were there? They couldn't run and they couldn't hide. So Sethe did what she felt was right.
ReplyDeleteI get your point, but as Mr.Mitchell clarified, Stamp Paid is not one of the four horsemen. There were things I didn't like about Bigger and the Narrator from Invisible Man, much more than Setbe. I think Morrison more shows us the lack of humanity in the four horsemen rather than the humanity. I didn't see Sethe as bad, but rather the decision she had to make was what really hit me hard. That's a really hard place to be in and I can't blame her at all for doing what she fought was right out of love. Her trauma is further emphasized, that she felt she would rather kill her kids than let them go through what she went through, because she loved them.
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