Acting out of "love"

I always believed that Beloved was a deranged novel with very difficult to interpret metaphors that make absolutely no sense. But in the midst of the novel, as the first third of the story is ending, Sethe comes to believe that she is headed down a road that would end up having to return to slavery. In the passage where Sethe is attempting to kill Denver, she reminisces about her past at Sweet Home. When she sees the “schoolteacher”, she is reminded of her horrifying experiences as a slave. And so, she convinces herself that the only way to prevent her children from experiencing a future of slavery--especially the same past as hers, she must murder her children for their own good. 

"ogsquad" Cameron C. John R. Nathan D. Chris L. by Chris Louie (c)

Out of anxiety and paranoia, Paul D is appalled by this unforgivable act that Sethe tries to justify, and as a result, he leaves 142 forever. Sethe wanting to kill her own children was vindicated by her reasoning to keep her children away from a future of slavery.

In retrospect, Sethe’s other children, Howard and Buglar, ran away from 142 because they were afraid of Sethe murdering them, like she had with her first born. And with that, we can assume that Denver’s reserved and distant nature must be derived from the fear of Sethe’s homicidal antics. 

If Sethe was willing to murder her own children out of “love”, then what is stopping her from going on a homicidal rampage? Despite Sethe’s absence of motherly behavior, she still exhibits natural motherly instinct. Additionally, her flaws as a mother can only be seen through her murdering of her third child. But as a precaution to her future children, she advocates for their safety in a deranged way that is sinister and cruel, but protects them from a life in slavery. After finishing Beloved I have become aware of the paradoxes that Morrison juxtaposes in order to establish an extended metaphor for the glorification of slavery. Morrison argues that there is no words or emotions to convey for the impact that slavery had on the African American community. And as society continues to grow, we still remain ignorant in a way to the oppression and horrificness that was slavery.