Sethe's Controversial Actions
In Beloved we are told the heroic story of Sethe singlehandedly taking and freeing her children from the plantation Sweet Home. She completes the seemingly impossible and safely gets her and her children across the border and they go to Ohio. Her story is awe-inspiring and the shows just how strong of a woman she is. The reader could almost say she could never do any wrong, especially to her children after her amazing escape. However, the book takes a turn when we see the flashback to Sethe attempting to kill her children at the sight of School Teacher. This is an absolutely shocking scene and one that nobody would expect Sethe to do. It seems like nobody in the story could expect that either, and couldn't understand why Sethe would do that. She is exiled because of this and nobody talks to her other than Paul D. However when she tells Paul D the story, even he is dumbfounded and can't see where Sethe is coming from. Keep in mind he also had to endure the tortures of Sweet Hom