Critical Lense Expert

In “Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” Terry Paul analysis the relationship between mother and daughter, the concept of motherhood, and the effects that slavery has on motherhood. He analysis the relationships through the feminist lens, looking at the differences in power and how the women in the book think of themselves and each other. He compares the book the women in Beloved to Cassey in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, analyzing how the women see themselves as mothers and the actions that they take. Paul analysis the concept of motherhood and slavery, and how the relationship between mother and daughter is not simple when the threat of being enslaved is introduced into the situation. On the other hand, Paul fails to talk about how unhealthy relationship between a mother and daughter can be when slavery is introduced.  

For instance, Paul calls to attention the concept of killing you child to protect them from being enslaved. He talks about how Cassey from Uncle Tom’s Cabin killed her own child to prevent being enslaved. Similarly he talks about how Sethe killed beloved, but to prevent her children from being enslaved. He says “a mother can conceivably kill a child in order to protect her own self-possession, because she feels enslaved by her, and not only because she would slave the child from slavery.” Paul is saying that not only can a mother kill her child to protect her children, but to she can kill her children to protect herself from being hurt by the child. By saying this, he introduces the concept of self- interest when it comes to being enslaved. Now, it is not only about the children, but it is about what the best things is for the children. For Sethe and Cassey, killing their children is a “conceivable” way to protect himself from being hurt by their children in the long run. This shows how being a mother is disrupted by the concept of slavery because it could bring the mother to killing her children to protect both herself and her children from being enslaved.

` Furthermore, how the relationship between a mother and daughter can be interrupted when the threat of slavery is introduced when he dissuses how mother and daughter are supposed to be one person. Paul explains how Julia Kristeva talks about how a mother and daughter are one person. In contrast, he explains how “such a lyrical evocation could not be more in more contrast to Denver’s horrified perception of Sethe and Beloved.” Paul is justified in saying that Sethe and beloved are not becoming one person because they are not. Beloved makes Sethe incredibly physically and emotionally weak, while Beloved because incredibly strong. If they two were one, they would both be strong and they would be equal to each other, but that is not the case. By saying “Denver's horrified perception,” Paul brings in the outside view of someone who is watching the relationship between the mother and daughter. This helps to prove the point that slavery threatens the relationship between a mother and daughter because Denver's point of view shows how the Beloved is more powerful that Sethe.

In contrast, Paul fails to talk about how unhealthy the relationship between mother and daughter can be when the threat of slavery is present. For instance, Denver describes how Beloved tortured Sethe. She describes how Beloved would make Sethe feel guilty for killing her, and how Sethe would claim “Beloved was more important, meant more to her than her own life. That she would trade places any day”(pg. 285). This relationship is controlling, abusive, and unhealthy. Beloved would not let it go that Sethe killed her, despite all of Sethes efforts to fix their relationship. By saying that Beloved is “more important than her own life” Toni Morrison emphasizes how unhealthy the relationship is because Sethe is willing to die to make Beloved happy. This is not the role that  mother should have where the mother feels bad about what she did, when she feels that the made the best decision at the time. This shows how unhealthy a relationship between a mother and daughter can be when the threat of being enslaved is introduced because Sethe killed Beloved, and tried to kill her other children, to protect them from being taken away from her and being slaves.

Paul analysis the relationship that a mother and daughter have when slavery is introduced, but fails to talk about how unhealthy that relationship is. Through his article we can see how the extremes of motherhood are justified in some cases. In Pauls articles, we can also see how the things that Sethe did to protect her children is not an uncommon thing to do. From this, we can take away that when the times are so drastic, the action a mother takes are what she believes are the only options.