The New Slavery

Denver’s section, beginning with “Beloved is my sister,” particularly fascinates me because it is the first time we hear of Denver admitting to being downright scared of her mother (242-247). Other characters (including Baby Suggs, Paul D, the townspeople, and so on) may recognize the fact that Sethe seems mentally and/or emotionally unbalanced when it comes to her children, but it is Denver – the one remaining character most directly affected and engangered by Sethe’s madness – who first expresses an overwhelming sense of fear of her own mother. Despite describing Sethe in this state as being “Not mean or anything, but like I was somebody she found and felt sorry for. Like she didn’t want to do it but she had to and it wasn’t going to hurt,” Denver acknowledges that her fear of decapitation by her own mother outweighs the kindness of Sethe’s intentions (244). This great fear of her mother, the one who nurtures her, probably influences and increases her devotion to Beloved, the one whom she nurtures, in order to protect Beloved from any further damage that Sethe could inflict upon her. This completely honest perspective of Sethe from her remaining child skews our image of Sethe as readers: if even her own children realize how dangerous she is and are afraid to sleep at night because “there sure is something in her that makes it all right to kill her own,” were her actions really worth the price (242)? Instead of liberating her children, Sethe has created a new slavery for them, as long as they are imprisoned with her in 124 and exposed to her deranged cruelty (which is almost worse than the cruelty of a stranger because it is originates as a perversion of the most pure and powerful emotion: love). Instead of using her love to hold her small family together in the aftermath of the escape from Sweet Home, Sethe allows her love to consume her, and this fierce, swollen love drives her own children away from her (emotionally and, except for Denver, physically) more effectively than slavery (because the latter at least family members with a yearning to return, whereas Sethe’s children no longer care about her fate or being with her to share it).