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【Abstract】 Beloved is a classic novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, set after the American Civil War (1861–1865). It tells a story about a mother Sethe who kills her daughter to prevent her from being recaptured. In this story, the role of a mother is subverted by Sethe’s killing of her baby. This paper tries to analyze the subversion of mother’s role in Beloved form two aspects: 1. motherhood and slavery 2. breaking of stereotyped mother images
【Key words】slaverysubversionmotherhood
Introduction
Sethe, a poor slave, lives in a Kentucky plantation where she is maltreated both physically and spiritually. In the plantation, woman slave’s body is not only sexually abused but also her rights to be a mother are deprived of as well. She flees with her children to get rid of this miserable life when the posse arrives to seize them back a tragedy happens. In order to save her children free from the brutal slavery system Sethe let her children die rather than live. Beloved is such a novel to explore to what extent mother and daughter bond are destroyed. In other words, the mother’s role is destroyed under slavery system.
1、Motherhood and Slavery
As a capable black woman and as a mother, Sethe feels obligated to provide Beloved, whether her daughter or not, everything she can do to satisfy her. Therefore, her job as mother, caretaker, life-giver and life-maintainer is never-ending, and because it is never-ending, it has the potential to take her to her grave. Sethe bears in mind that she loves Beloved and fears losing Beloved before she can make her understand that worse than killing her own daughter is the slavery.
For Sethe the most important thing she values and slavery has not taken away from her is motherhood.
However, on the plantation, the black women’s nurturance—from nursing milk to energy is used up primarily in working fields and tending white children. Sethe is able to have her children with her, but her nursing milk is still deprived by the slave owners. It is especially painful for Sethe to lose her milk because she thinks the milk is only for her baby. She cannot fight against the slavery and the major means of protecting children from slavery is to value them and to communicate this value to them. This is a great sacrifice that Sethe and many mothers, traditional and nontraditional, are more than willing to make.
Sethe also reflects on her faults when Beloved returns, and we can see transforming and destereotyping potential of Sethe’s actions. She goes on thinking of how she will change, how she can mother now as a free woman. In this case, it is as if Sethe must be a nontraditional, unstereotypical mother in order to accomplish the traditional mothering role she wants to attain. 2、Subversion of Stereotyped Mother Image
The traditional mother images in people’s mind are gentle, generous and kind. They love their children very much and take good care of them. In Beloved, Morrison offers mothers who represent the past, present, and future of motherhood. In Beloved, the primary mother characters include Sethe’s mother and Baby Suggs who represent the past; Sethe, who represents the past, present, and future because of her past mothering and present influence on her daughter; and Denver, who becomes another mother in the text and will presumably one day become a mother in her own right.
Sethe’s mother is a silent image but does not accept the fate as a slave. She subverts the traditional mother role in her own way. She does not value the lives of the babies conceived out of rape and hatred and consciously refuses motherhood at a time, so she chooses to get rid of her children. Sethe’s mother reverse the mother role by desertion, by neglect, by the refusal to mother.
The most extreme subversion is Sethe who murders her own daughter, out of distorted love. Sethe’s love is in a violent manner and for different reasons. One can comprehend at the very least the mentality of choice, the maternal influence, which demonstrates one who has strayed from the stereotypical role of mothering. From her mother, Sethe’s begins to understand what differentiates a mother who remains in the stereotype from a mother who consciously opposes and breaks down the stereotyped mother role. Sethe choose to protect her child in an extreme action because some kind of rebellious ideas bears in her mind. She wants to acts like her mother to fight against the slavery. The subversion of traditional mother’s role is also a subversion of the slavery.
Conclusion
The image of Sethe is a subversion of the traditional gentle mother’s role, which demonstrates the evilness of slavery. This subversion takes place in a special historical background and the mother image of Sethe is both heart-breaking and profound for the readers. The slavery is responsible for the extreme action of Sethe.
References
［1］Angelo, Bonni . “The Pain of Being Black (An interview with Toni Morrison)”. Taylor Guthrie, ed., Conservations with Toni Morrison, Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994.
［2］Bakerman, Jane S. “Failure of Love, Female initiation in the novels of Toni Morrison”. American Literature, Vol.52, 1981:47-58.
［3］House, Elizabeth. “Toni Morrison’s Ghost: The Beloved Who is Not Beloved”. Studies in American Fiction, Vol.18, 1990:17-26.
【Key words】slaverysubversionmotherhood
Introduction
Sethe, a poor slave, lives in a Kentucky plantation where she is maltreated both physically and spiritually. In the plantation, woman slave’s body is not only sexually abused but also her rights to be a mother are deprived of as well. She flees with her children to get rid of this miserable life when the posse arrives to seize them back a tragedy happens. In order to save her children free from the brutal slavery system Sethe let her children die rather than live. Beloved is such a novel to explore to what extent mother and daughter bond are destroyed. In other words, the mother’s role is destroyed under slavery system.
1、Motherhood and Slavery
As a capable black woman and as a mother, Sethe feels obligated to provide Beloved, whether her daughter or not, everything she can do to satisfy her. Therefore, her job as mother, caretaker, life-giver and life-maintainer is never-ending, and because it is never-ending, it has the potential to take her to her grave. Sethe bears in mind that she loves Beloved and fears losing Beloved before she can make her understand that worse than killing her own daughter is the slavery.
For Sethe the most important thing she values and slavery has not taken away from her is motherhood.
However, on the plantation, the black women’s nurturance—from nursing milk to energy is used up primarily in working fields and tending white children. Sethe is able to have her children with her, but her nursing milk is still deprived by the slave owners. It is especially painful for Sethe to lose her milk because she thinks the milk is only for her baby. She cannot fight against the slavery and the major means of protecting children from slavery is to value them and to communicate this value to them. This is a great sacrifice that Sethe and many mothers, traditional and nontraditional, are more than willing to make.
Sethe also reflects on her faults when Beloved returns, and we can see transforming and destereotyping potential of Sethe’s actions. She goes on thinking of how she will change, how she can mother now as a free woman. In this case, it is as if Sethe must be a nontraditional, unstereotypical mother in order to accomplish the traditional mothering role she wants to attain. 2、Subversion of Stereotyped Mother Image
The traditional mother images in people’s mind are gentle, generous and kind. They love their children very much and take good care of them. In Beloved, Morrison offers mothers who represent the past, present, and future of motherhood. In Beloved, the primary mother characters include Sethe’s mother and Baby Suggs who represent the past; Sethe, who represents the past, present, and future because of her past mothering and present influence on her daughter; and Denver, who becomes another mother in the text and will presumably one day become a mother in her own right.
Sethe’s mother is a silent image but does not accept the fate as a slave. She subverts the traditional mother role in her own way. She does not value the lives of the babies conceived out of rape and hatred and consciously refuses motherhood at a time, so she chooses to get rid of her children. Sethe’s mother reverse the mother role by desertion, by neglect, by the refusal to mother.
The most extreme subversion is Sethe who murders her own daughter, out of distorted love. Sethe’s love is in a violent manner and for different reasons. One can comprehend at the very least the mentality of choice, the maternal influence, which demonstrates one who has strayed from the stereotypical role of mothering. From her mother, Sethe’s begins to understand what differentiates a mother who remains in the stereotype from a mother who consciously opposes and breaks down the stereotyped mother role. Sethe choose to protect her child in an extreme action because some kind of rebellious ideas bears in her mind. She wants to acts like her mother to fight against the slavery. The subversion of traditional mother’s role is also a subversion of the slavery.
Conclusion
The image of Sethe is a subversion of the traditional gentle mother’s role, which demonstrates the evilness of slavery. This subversion takes place in a special historical background and the mother image of Sethe is both heart-breaking and profound for the readers. The slavery is responsible for the extreme action of Sethe.
References
［1］Angelo, Bonni . “The Pain of Being Black (An interview with Toni Morrison)”. Taylor Guthrie, ed., Conservations with Toni Morrison, Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994.
［2］Bakerman, Jane S. “Failure of Love, Female initiation in the novels of Toni Morrison”. American Literature, Vol.52, 1981:47-58.
［3］House, Elizabeth. “Toni Morrison’s Ghost: The Beloved Who is Not Beloved”. Studies in American Fiction, Vol.18, 1990:17-26.