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Gender Roles In Sethe's Sweet Home

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As Sethe reflects on her escape from Sweet Home, she becomes proud that she escaped with her children intact. “I did it!” She proudly exclaimed to Paul D. Sethe affirms that “I got us all out. Without Halle too” (Morrison 93). Contra to many enslaved people, Sethe has done the unthinkable by removing her entire family from slavery. Sethe’s resilience has allowed her to do something that her own mother could not do for Sethe. Sickels maintains that “Sethe’s escape from Sweet Home and the infant she has given birth to reveal her resistance to slavery’s attempt to control black motherhood” (Sickels 38). Sethe is a courageous figure that has given her family freedom without the help of her husband. Sethe explains, “Up till then it was the only thing I ever did on my own” (Morrison 93). In this defining moment, she feels empowered that she has succeeded in an oppressive society. …show more content…

In this instance, the reader acknowledges official break in gender roles from Sethe. She begins to acknowledge a reconstruction of herself with a deconstruction of gender roles. She recognizes that the feminine gender role of being submissive and passive did not give her freedom from slavery. Therefore, Sethe’s reconstruction of the self because of gender has influenced her need to make decisions for her children. In Supernatural Forces: Belief, Difference, and Power in Contemporary Work, Bonnie C. Winsbrow explains the importance of self with regards to Sethe’s construction of her identity. She

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Throughout the story, Sethe’s regret is seen at many different levels, but towards the end Paul D. examines how Sethe’s guilt and depression have consumed her. Paul D. notices that Sethe has not bathed telling her, “‘you don’t smell right’” and soon realizes that she has stopped trying to survive (Morrison 272). When the story is told from Sethe’s point of view it is quite easy for the reader to understand and empathize with Sethe’s emotions. However, Morrison changes the point of view to show the reader how harboring some emotions for too long can be detrimental to a person’s mental health. Paul D. witnesses how Sethe’s emotions have completely taken control of her life and desperately tries to make Sethe realize her self-worth.

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In addition to that, the black community isolated Sethe because she did something that the community considered wrong. Black feminism will be the approach utilized here to see the oppression of woman of color because it includes sexism, classism and racism. Since the female characters are very dominant in the novel, a black feminist approach should be very effective and it enables one to see how the female characters deal with the past and live with it in the present, what motherhood mean to the female characters, and how much the past influences the female characters who lives in the present. The end of the novel reveals the forgiveness and the acceptance not only of the black community toward Sethe’s choice (killing her daughter) but also of the white people (the Bodwins) who accepted Denver to work for them. This reconciliation shows that the courage and the will to get rid off from the past to live side by side peacefully and to move toward the future together.

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