Critical Lens Experts Blog Entry

Toni Morrison exquisitely writes Beloved in a way that presents a unique way of portraying motherhood. Many have tried to understand her work and have written academic articles analyzing the different themes they encounter through certain lenses. One article titled “Slavery and Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’” crafted by Terry Paul Caesar goes into depth about this connection in the book. The article goes into detail about the possible theme of Beloved where motherhood and slavery are interchangeable. This article similarly relates to another theme of how the idea of motherhood is an unbreakable bond that takes precedence over everything else.  

Caesar sheds light on how being a mother and the categorizations of slavery intertwine. Many times throughout the book Sethe calls her daughters “mine” making them her own possession. In times of slavery, slaves were the possession of their white master. Commonly, mothers see a piece of themselves in their daughters or sons. An incident in the book when Schoolteacher had showed up to reclaim Sethe and force her back into slavery provoked Sethe to commit infanticide to her daughter. Caesar mentions that when experiencing motherhood and slavery, individuals learn, “what it means to have a self and to give that self away.” She killed a miniature piece of herself to prevent her daughter from the horrors of slavery. She had no option, but to kill her own daughter, or in other words give a part of her away by force, due to Schoolteacher’s return. As a slave, one must give themselves away as a person by force as well. Slaves are not people, rather property. In both instances, motherhood and slavery, one must rid a portion or all of their identity. Here the idea that motherhood and slavery are complementary is proven through different examples throughout the book.

A theme I uncovered through my disciplined analysis of feminism while reading Beloved is how there is a strong bond between a mother and her child and how that is of more importance than other issues or relationships. An event that reflects this theme in the book is when Sethe starts showing up late and then gets fired from her job. She began to show up late because she wanted to spend quality time with Beloved after she realized it was her daughter who had risen from the dead. She prioritizes her relationship with her daughter over a rare job experience she had been offered as a former slave. Sethe values her time spent with Beloved more than an income to support her family. Another example of this theme in the text is how Sethe verbally defends her other daughter Denver to Paul D. As analyzed in the close reading blog previously posted, she puts her relationship with Paul D in jeopardy to defend Denver’s reputation. Her love is labeled as “too thick” for her children.

The theme I came to a conclusion with and the article’s theme are similar, yet they both yield some differences. Some similarities of the two themes is that each examines an aspect of motherhood. They each represent the idea that motherhood is powerful in their own ways. Each theme identifies that there are also negative qualities to motherhood as well. Also, both of our themes are viewed through the feminist lens. The differences between these themes is that one compares an infamous time period in US history to the act of being a mother. Motherhood typically has a positive connotation, but instead, Caesar compares it to the horrific time period of slavery in the US. The theme I identified in the text portrays motherhood in a more positive aspect than the theme in the article Caesar wrote. I viewed the theme through different stories in the book on how motherhood is an unbreakable bond.