Beloved Case

At the end of Section 1 of Beloved, we found out the fate of Sethe's first daughter. The revelation of what happened pieces together a lot about why her family fell apart. All though the beginning of the section implies that the reason for the family falling apart is the baby ghost, this discovery shows that there was a lot going on in the family dynamic that the reader didn't know about. Even though the reader knew the baby ghost was Sethe's daughter that had died, it was never quite clear why the ghost was haunting them in the first place. The fact that Sethe killed her daughter to keep her away from Sweet Home doesn't really change my perception of her. From the beginning of the book, Sethe's character has always been one who would do anything for her family no matter what. "She began o sweat from a fever she thanked God for since it would certainly keep her baby warm" (Morrison, 106). This quote is from the chapter in the book where Sethe has given birth to Denver, and is now making her way to the Ohio River to get to 124. She is sick and is running a high fever, but instead of feeling sorry for herself, she is happy because she knows it is keeping her own daughter safe.

In this section, the mothers of the story are both represented as women who give their all to their children, and in return their children give their all to them. As previously stated, Sethe gives her all to her children, but in Baby Suggs case, her child is giving his all to make sure she is comfortable. "Only Halle, who had watched her movements closely for the last four years, knew that to get in and out of bed she had to lift her thigh with both hands, which was shy he spoke to Mr. Garner about buying her out of there so she could sit down for a change" (Morrison, 165). Knowing some background history of slavery, one can imply that Halle would probably have to work at Sweet Home for the rest of his life to buy Baby Suggs out of slavery. This would also mean he would probably never be able to buy himself out of slavery also.