时间：2022-04-01 04:48:55
Abstract：Love is the eternal theme throughout history and Morrison's work is not an exception. However love under the slavery is quite unusual. In this short essay， it analyses the abnormal love concerning with the protagonist Sethe， her choice of a lover， of killing her children and the way she loves her daughters under slavery.
Key Words： Choice of love； slavery； cruelty of slavery； pursuing for freedom
Part I Introduction
Tony Morrison is an American novelist， editor， and professor and the winner of Noble Prize. Her Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize. In Beloved， the protagonist Sethe kills her daughter in order to escape slavery.
According to Laura Brace’s， “slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold， and are forced to work.” From the day one is captured or purchased as a slave， one is deprived of the right to leave， to refuse to work， or to demand compensation. The existence of slavery has twisted human nature. Not only did it rob the slaves’ chances of living as a normal person， but also deprived of the whites’ basic consciousness and sympathy. In Beloved， under the protection of slavery， the school teacher mistreat the slaves and tag an “animal characteristics” to them. He empower his nephews to rape Sethe and rob her milk. The slaves who try to escape are killed， Halle becomes insane after seeing Sethe being abused， Paul D endures tortuous experience in a chain gang...The slavery is the root of all the misery of the characters in Beloved.
Part II Analysis of Sethe’s choice of love
Choice of a lover
When Sethe was 13， she was sold to the plantation named “Sweet Home”. In this plantation there were five slaveries， all men except Sethe. The four men slaves all want to get Sethe but none of them touch her. Finally， Sethe chooses to marry Halle， apparently in part because he has proven generous enough to buy his mother’s freedom by hiring himself out on the weekends. Maybe Sethe is drawn by freedom rather than his generous. The choice of her lover has already revealed her true longing--to be free.
Choice of killing her children
Having experienced the great suffering and all the cruelty in Sweet Home， Sethe eventually realized the dark side of slavery. Despite all the extreme dangerous outcomes for escaping， she still runs with a baby in her belly. She succeeds the escaping and lives 28 happy days in her mother-in-law’s home. On the last day， schoolteacher comes to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Rather than surrender her children to a life of dehumanizing slavery， she flees with them to the woodshed and tries to kill them. Only her older daughter， dies， her throat having been cut with a handsaw by Sethe. This is the hardest choice as well as a desperate one. She will never let her children suffer what she has gone through under the slavery. Maternal love is human nature， it is a kind of instinct that no woman can deny. However Sethe makes that tough decision， only because the slavery is too cruel to bear. Under slavery， the only choice she can make for her children should be killing them.
Choice of way to love her children
Sethe loves Denver， the younger daughter who survived the killing， as if she is the daughter who has been killed but her love is too intense that it makes things worse--Denver developes a very lonely character and never goes out of the house. The strange young woman who calls herself Beloved who is thought to be the embodied spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter comes back to Sethe. Beloved grows increasingly abusive， manipulative， and parasitic， and Sethe is obsessed with satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she murdered her. The way she loves her daughters is too intense which is harmful to both the daughters and the mother. Sethe put all her heart in Beloved and doesn’t work hard anymore and eventually loses her job. Sethe is still suffering from the bad influence of slavery system even after decades of years.
Part III Conclusion
Beloved explores the physical， emotional， and spiritual devastation wrought by slavery， a devastation that continues to haunt those characters who are former slaves even in freedom. Sethe’s choice of love indicates her pursuing of freedom and resisting the slavery. The love also devours Sethe’s individuation and prevents her to be a normal woman. All the tragedies are resulted in slavery. Love under slavery is twisted， but people still love， though in an abnormal way.
Works Cited：
[1]Stephanie A. Demetrakopoulos .Maternal Bonds as Devourers of Women's Individuation in Tony[M].
[2]Morrison's Beloved. American Literature Review. Indiana State University，1992（1）：51-59.
[3]Laura Brace （2004）. The Politics of Property： Labour， Freedom and Belonging. Edinburgh [M].
University Press. pp. 162 Retrieved May 31， 2012.
[4]李春芳.浅析《宠儿》中弱势群体的生活困境[J].长城， 2012（4）： 74-75.
[5]刘世英，刘国云，贾娟娟. 不能忘记的故事 托尼·莫里森《宠儿》的艺术世界[J]. 银川：宁夏人民出版社， 2004.