How slavery ruined Sethe´s ability to sustain healthy relationships.

In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, the main character, Sethe who is an ex-slave, is reunited with her deceased daughter. Sethe saved this daughter from her own fate, by cutting her throat, when she was just 2 years old. This relationship between mother and daughter develops throughout the book, and is an clear example of how slavery ruins the ability to sustain healthy relationships.

In an analysis of Toni Morrison's Beloved, “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self”, Barbara A. Schapiro writes about the relationships between the characters in Beloved. Sethe's experiences as a slave drives her to kill her daughter Beloved, when schoolteacher; her former slavemaster, arrives at her house to bring her back Sweethome. This is an act of love, and as Barbara A. Schapiro puts it “Her humanity has been so violated by this man, and by her entire experience as a slave woman, that she kills her daughter to save her from a similar fate.”, and as Sethe states in the book "If I hadn't killed her she would have died and that is something I could not bear to happen to her" (200). Like the analysis discusses, Sethe killed Beloved to save her from mental death, a thing Sethe herself has experienced.

Sethe´s emotional abilities is highly affected by her years as a slave, this is mentioned in the book, when Sethe says;  "Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another" (95).  Sethe's eyes are also described as empty, symbolising her emptiness inside, coming from the expression that eyes are the windows of the soul; "deep down in those big black eyes there was no expression at all" (55). In “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self” this is also mentioned by the author writing that;“Her eyes reflect the psychic loss and denial of self she has experienced on all levels in her life.”

The murder of Beloved, shows Sethe's unconditional love for her children, and when Beloved returns, that love will physically drain Sethe. Symbolising how loving Beloved takes more humanity, than Sethe has left after her life as a slave. In the analysis Barbara A. Schapiro writes;

“The dynamic suggests a mother being drained by the child's greedy, excessive need.”

Sethe does not have the emotional ability to give Beloved the love she needs, so when Sethe is emotionally drained, she continues to give physical love, like her limited amount of food, to satisfy Beloved. We can also see this change in Sethe and Beloved's physical appearance, as Beloved gets fatter while Sethe gets thinner."Beloved ate up her life, took it, swelled up with it, grew taller on it"(250).

This symbolizes the odd dynamic between mother and daughter, set off by Sethe's years as a slave, which lead to her overpowering love for her children, blurring her judgement of right and wrong. This love shows in both the action of killing Beloved, then almost killing herself when she returns, as a consequence of giving Beloved everything she asks for.

Psycho Killer - How Slavery Damaged Sethe's Mental State: Critical Lens Experts

In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays various themes and messages through methods and literary techniques such as characterization and symbols. Sethe, for example, provides a strong depiction of the strength of the love of a mother. In addition to this, various symbols that Morrison uses throughout the novel provide representations for the way in which slavery affects the characters. Through both the characterization of Sethe as a mother and the use of the symbol of Sethe’s tree-shaped scar, Morrison conveys the message that the experience of living through slavery significantly psychologically damages a person, causing what once was beautiful and benevolent to become tarnished with abuse and cruelty.

Through various symbols throughout the novel, Morrison conveys how slavery affects and scars the psychological functionings of someone. For example, Morrison's use of the chokecherry tree-shaped scar on Sethe’s back acts as a physical representation of how Sethe’s past as a slave impacts her throughout her life. The imagery of a tree brings to mind the idea of growth and roots. Through illustrating this tree as a scar from slavery on Sethe’s back, Morrison uses it to show how slavery impacted Sethe’s roots. In doing so, she illustrates how slavery has caused her to grow and develop with permanent psychological scars which cause her to act in certain ways and harm those around her. However, the image of a tree is one that is oftentimes thought of as beautiful and that represents life and nurturing. This juxtaposition between beauty and life and pain and suffering illustrates how slavery damages what was once loving and benign.

Not only does Morrison use symbolism to express the psychological effects of slavery, she also accomplishes this through Sethe’s journey as a mother by illustrating how slavery takes away a sense of humanity from those within its grasp. She shows how it deprives one not only one’s freedom, but also one’s sanity. In “Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Psychological Reading”, Sandra Mayfield explains how Sethe’s experience as a slave caused significant psychological damage to Sethe, leading her to “ente[r] a phase of self-hatred and contempt that paralyze her actions and her thought” (9). Through the article, Mayfield analyzes how slavery psychologically and physically damages people. Mayfield focuses on Sethe’s actions and role as a mother and how it is affected by her past of slavery. As a slave, Sethe constantly experienced people exploiting her and stealing from her. These people dehumanized her. Through various acts of abuse, the white people who “owned” Sethe treated her as “not a woman, but a piece of property” and “not a mother, only the breeder of more slaves” (Mayfield 9). As a result of this treatment, Sethe learned “to cling to life and to the lives of her children” (Mayfield 10-11). Once she escaped from slavery, she had developed a mindset of doing whatever may be necessary to protect her children, for whom her love was the strongest, from the abusive cruelty of slavery. This intense love that Sethe has for her children has been tainted by Sethe’s past as a slave. Thus, it causes her to act irrationally. Similar to the tree being nurturing and loving, the love of a mother is often seen as one of the most pure and powerful forms of love. While this type of love can often be seen as truly benevolent, Morrison illustrates how slavery can take this love, something which is innately kind, and through the deterioration of humanity, transform it into something malevolent and ultimately lethal.

Through her portrayal of motherhood and development of symbols, Morrison conveys the psychological damage slavery can have on a person. She expresses how it can turn something that was beautiful, pure, and loving into something malevolent, harsh, and cruel. The way Sethe is shown as a mother and how her past has impacted her behavior towards her children exemplifies the way slavery causes those it affects to lose somewhat of a sense of humanity and to act in ways which may seem irrational. The tree-shaped scar on Sethe’s back symbolizes both the love and nurturing care Sethe provides as a mother and how this love and care is scarred, or damaged, by her past as a slave. Examining this theme and how Morrison portrays it in her novel allows us to further understand it and its depth. We, as readers, are able to look into what Morrison is saying through her novel and realize that the characters, plotline, and other aspects of the book serve more purpose than merely telling a story; they expose a message and truth of humanity that demands to be known. This message and truth uses various literary techniques to expose to the reader how slavery affects the mind of someone and damages what was once beautiful and benevolent within him or her.