Carved Void

Are the townspeople correct when they reject Sethe and her household due to the horrific act she committed in that tool shed? Or can the murder of Beloved in the face of impending disaster that would result in Sethe’s, and more importantly her children’s, enslavement – a reality which repels every particle of Sethe’s existence – be justified? Perhaps we cannot go as far as to say that this murder is justifiable; however, we can draw out reasons to explain why Sethe was willing to enact such a decision. “Why,” as the spirit of Beloved says, “did she go in the water in the place where we crouched?” (253)

Maternal instincts combined with a life of bondage is the answer. There was no other way for Sethe to save her children from the life she fought so hard to leave behind than to take theirs in that moment when schoolteacher arrived to 124. For Sethe, any reality outside that of Sweet Home farm would be better for her children, even if that reality meant death. Before Paul D leaves 124 he tells Sethe, “There could have been a way. Some other way.”(194) But in the heat of the moment, there was no way out for Sethe except the one she decided to act upon. In a way, her maternal instincts were correct: should they have made a dash for it a bullet would have met them in those woods behind 124. We know this from the precautions the schoolteacher and his companions made. “Three of them dismounted, one stayed in the saddle, his rifle ready, his eyes trained away from the house to the left and to the right, because likely as not the fugitive would make a dash for it.” (174) They would shoot to stop any slave attempting to make a dash.

This decision is also shaped by the particular life Sethe lived as well –from seeing her mother hanging from a tree as a child, the rape she had to endure while her husband watched from the rafters, and to the world of constant fear and trembling that comes for a life as a slave. She existed among violence, and it was violence that shaped her decision to murder her children.

Not only was it violence but also a lack of experience that could only be gathered passed down generation to generation through family and close ties – something slavery prevented. Sethe explains this problem to Paul D, while tip-toeing around the subject of the murder. It is exemplified by the basket, “that thing you used to hang the babies in the trees,” that Sethe wishes she could have learned to make during those first 28 days of paradise at 124.(188) She is missing this skill. It is also seen in the way Sixo ties up Howard’s thumb after it had been smashed in the barn. “See,” Sethe says, “I would have never thought of that. Never.” (189) If only Sethe had this very missing link in her constitution to fill the void slavery had carved out, then she might have acted otherwise on that day.

But Sethe does save her children by being overcome with maternal madness. Beloved in the process becomes a martyr in order to save the family. However, once the three – Sethe, Beloved, Denver – are together, this void of slavery carved out in each of the members shapes their feelings of happiness. The three recurring lines, “You are mine / You are mine / You are mine,” exemplify this problem. (256) Their happiness hangs upon the idea of ownership: their love rests upon a belonging to, a product of slavery that they cannot leave behind.