and daughters, and the agony of guilt. ?It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is

the outrageous claim of a slave.? These are the words, of Toni Morrison, used to describe

the actions of Sethe, the central character in the novel. She, a former slave, chooses to kill

her baby girl rather then let her live a life in slavery. In preventing her from the physical

and emotional horrors of slavery, Sethe has put herself in to a realm of physical and

emotional pain: guilt. And in understanding her guilt we can start to conceive her

motivations for killing her third nameless child. Did Beloved's death come out of love or

selfish pride? In preventing her child from going into slavery, Sethe, too, protected herself,

she prevented herself from re-entering captivity. In examining Sethe's character we can

see that her motivations derive from her deep love towards her children, and from the lack

of love for herself. Sethe's children are her only good quality. Her children are a part of

her and in killing one she kills a part of herself. What hinders over Sethe is her refusal to

my milk no more except my own children...Now I can look at things again because she's

killed herself when escaping from School Teacher. Sethe said clearly that she would not

Some common words found in the essay are:
Toni Morrison, School Teacher, Teacher Sethe, Beloved Sethe, Sweet Home, Paul Sethe's, Beloved Sethe's, Paul Beloved, Ultimately Sethe, Morrison's Beloved, sethe sethe, school teacher, actions sethe, slavery sethe, beloved embodiment sethe, sethe's children, children killing, wasn't sweet, love sethe's, live life, wasn't sweet home, physical emotional,
Approximate Word count = 1426
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)