Is Sethe a bad person?
Let me start by saying that what Sethe did in the Woodshed is undeniably a horrible thing. There is nothing that can make that ambiguous, it's just awful. However, in my opinion, it doesn't make her a bad person.
When trying to reconcile her actions with the character we were initially presented with, it gets pretty complicated. Sethe is an extremely strong, caring, tough and loving person. She does what needs to be done when there is a crisis, and she doesn't let anything stop her. Before this scene, she is presented as the ultimate mother, overcoming superhuman odds to make it back to her children, and protecting them at all costs. In this context, what she did can be extremely difficult to understand. How could a person who had such a love for her children do what she did? After everything she went through to get them out of Sweet Home safely, and to make it to them herself, why would she want to kill them?
First of all, I don't think that she wanted to kill them. It is made very clear by the rest of the novel that she loved them a lot. Instead, having been through so many horrible things because of Sweet Home, she felt that she had to kill them in order to protect them. She even says something along the lines of she "wanted to send them somewhere they would be safe." Her instincts as the ultimate maternal figure told her that it would be better for children to be dead than to have to grow up in a place like Sweet Home. Her actions, though horrible, came from her intense love for her children. Her strength, her toughness, and her attitude of getting things done when they need to be done allowed her to carry out what she thought was best for her children, even if she herself did not want to.
Saying that Sethe is a bad person implies that there was some appropriate course of action under her circumstances, which there really was not. She was forced into an unwinnable situation and did what she thought was right based on who she was and her love for her children. Though her actions were undoubtedly horrible, they came from a good place and because of that, it's hard to say that she is a bad person because of them.
Having said that, my image of her as a person was definitely tainted by reading this scene. What do you guys think?
When trying to reconcile her actions with the character we were initially presented with, it gets pretty complicated. Sethe is an extremely strong, caring, tough and loving person. She does what needs to be done when there is a crisis, and she doesn't let anything stop her. Before this scene, she is presented as the ultimate mother, overcoming superhuman odds to make it back to her children, and protecting them at all costs. In this context, what she did can be extremely difficult to understand. How could a person who had such a love for her children do what she did? After everything she went through to get them out of Sweet Home safely, and to make it to them herself, why would she want to kill them?
First of all, I don't think that she wanted to kill them. It is made very clear by the rest of the novel that she loved them a lot. Instead, having been through so many horrible things because of Sweet Home, she felt that she had to kill them in order to protect them. She even says something along the lines of she "wanted to send them somewhere they would be safe." Her instincts as the ultimate maternal figure told her that it would be better for children to be dead than to have to grow up in a place like Sweet Home. Her actions, though horrible, came from her intense love for her children. Her strength, her toughness, and her attitude of getting things done when they need to be done allowed her to carry out what she thought was best for her children, even if she herself did not want to.
Saying that Sethe is a bad person implies that there was some appropriate course of action under her circumstances, which there really was not. She was forced into an unwinnable situation and did what she thought was right based on who she was and her love for her children. Though her actions were undoubtedly horrible, they came from a good place and because of that, it's hard to say that she is a bad person because of them.
Having said that, my image of her as a person was definitely tainted by reading this scene. What do you guys think?
Nice post. I think the scene is purposefully supposed to make us feel horrified at what Sethe did, but also understand why she did it and that she did it out of a place of love. The ambiguity we rightfully feel, and the horror of the situation and the decision in the first place, I think are meant to highlight that regardless of our feelings about her split-second decision it was an awful decision to have to make, and the fact that anyone would ever be put in that position speaks to the horrors and evil of slavery.
ReplyDeleteI believe that after going through a miraculous feat that saved Sethe and her children and how much she had to endure to get out she must truly understand the horrors of slavery and therefore would make the decision to murder her children. Along with her no-nonsense attitude and insanely compassionate mind it seemed there would be only one decision for Sethe to make.
ReplyDeleteNormally when I'm faced with a character in a book or a show or something who is ultimately good but does something terrible, I go through this extreme emotional turmoil of whether or not I should still like character. But when we got to this scene, there was no trace of a thought in my head that Sethe could possibly be a bad person. This might be because she was already introduced to us as, like you said, "the ultimate mother", so we know she didn't do it to hurt them. Understanding the context in which this happened, and the amount of trauma that Sethe has suffered plays into this as well-- like can you really blame her for having this reaction? Also, I think it's important to note that her response was likely not super thought out because everything happened so quickly. She was suddenly faced with a very real reminder of maybe the most traumatic experience of her life (before this), so she probably wasn't thinking very clearly. All of that being said, of course what she did was still incredibly horrifying and terrible and disturbing. I just can't see her as being a bad person. Sorry for the super long comment!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree - I just cannot bring myself to think that Sethe is a bad person, and I don't think we're supposed to. I think we're supposed to understand why she did what she did. The build up to the book makes it clear first of all like you said, that Sethe loves her children more than anything. It's also made it clear the unimaginable trauma that she has been to at the hands of those four men. So yeah, I can't see Sethe's actions as anything other than completely, utterly heartbreaking - the product of a woman who has been broken down over and over again and who can't bear to see the same happen to her children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and other people who have commented before me. It’s hard to see Sethe as a bad person, especially because of the clear anguish and trauma she feels afterward. Someone like Schoolteacher is despicable to me because of his cold-blooded heartless reaction to the event, treating it as just an economic loss. Sethe is clearly incredibly broken, and even the fact that she dances around actually saying what happened shows how sad and ashamed of it she is.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that my image of Sethe was tainted by this scene. However, I also agree that we aren't supposed to think she is a bad person because of it. She chose to commit a horrible act but in her mind it was for a good reason. And since we know that she loved her children and that she was driven to do this by her love for her children, this just shows how much she loved her children because she was willing to try to kill them out of love.
ReplyDeleteI think that Morrison's idea with this course of action (allowing us to know Sethe before we hear about this event) is to purposefully taint our perceptions of her. This way, we react in a similar way to Paul, in the sense that we learn that Sethe, a character which we have a very benign image of, has done something unthinkable. However, Paul handles his feelings with less tact as it appears.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I think the scene emphasizes how much Sethe loves her children, while at the same time showing that maybe this intense love causes diversions from what we consider moral.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that Sethe is not a bad person. She is just a person who made a horrible decision. When we learn that she kills her child, I think that the reader's opinion of Sethe becomes complicated. She loves her children and seems like a good person. But she did such an awful thing, so what are we supposed to think? Personally, I just feel like the situation, her life, is very complicated, which makes it difficult for me to have a clear opinion.
ReplyDeleteI liked your analysis, Sammy. It's important to distinguish a bad person and a bad action. And add on that fact that the situation was a lose-lose one, it's hard. This just increases the horridity of slavery and how it leaves a huge scar in the slave after they have escaped it. Slavery will haunt her wherever she goes in life.
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