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Loyalty In Beloved

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A passage that really struck me was, “Beloved is my sister. I swallowed her blood right along with my mother’s milk… I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I’m scared of her because of it” because it made me realize the importance of a healthy family life (Morrison, 242). While I have always just assumed that happiness does not necessarily stem from just one sector of life, through the character Denver in Toni Morrison’s, Beloved, I was shown that without a solid family to rely on, it is difficult to find happiness in the cruel, harsh world. Throughout Denver’s life, she lacked a family-like support system, which made her lonely, isolated, and for the most part, pained. Although Denver …show more content…

When Denver learned at an early age that her mother, Sethe, had killed Denver’s only sister, she lived in fear, not only because Sethe had killed a child, but also because Denver thought she was next on Sethe’s “hit-list.” However, despite Denver’s fear of Sethe, she was dependent on her mother, just like any other child, for attention. While Denver liked to think that she would be the center of her mother’s world, Denver constantly felt let down by her mother, as Sethe was constantly caring for other people instead of her own daughter. Furthermore, the lack of care that Sethe gave Denver not only disallowed Denver to grow as a woman, but also stunted Denver emotionally due to her family’s isolation from community. For example, at Baby Suggs’ funeral, Sethe did not eat the food given to her by other mourners, nor joined in in their prayers and “forbade Denver to” (Morrison, 202). Sethe’s actions at Baby’s funeral were taken as an insult by the rest of her community, thus beginning 124’s era of isolation. Also, even though Denver does have her mother in 124 with her for the entirety of her 18 year old life, Denver was quick to observe that Sethe did not express much love towards Denver the way she had towards other people, thus adding on to Denvers sense of isolation. Ultimately,

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I swallowed her blood right along with my mother’s milk” (Morrison 21). What she does not understand is, Sethe only did it to protect Beloved from being tortured from slavery. Though one would rather not have it happen at all, it makes sense for a mother to kill her children, rather than have them suffer by the hands of a stranger, and die in a much worse way. Sethe did not think any of her children could ever be used as a slave. Denver was kept in isolation due to her safety, which made her fear the world.

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Sethe’s passion for her children shines through this passage, she identifies her children as “the part of her that were precious and fine and beautiful;” for Sethe, to allow her owner to take her children, would be to allow him to destroy everything that is beautiful in herself, to destroy all the “life” she had made. To this understanding, Sethe’s murder of her daughter seems a less morally reprehensible crime because it becomes more of an act of self-defense. Morrison withholds judgment on the action, instead throughout the book, Toni focuses her criticisms on the forces of slavery that led Sethe to kill her daughter. In this passage, Morrison condemns slavery as an institution so cruel that it could mutate a mother’s love into murder. 12.

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