Beloved Discussion Question

3. What judgments does Toni Morrison make on Sethe's killing of her daughter? How does Sethe's community judge her? How does Paul D. judge her? How does she judge herself? How do you judge her?

I personally don't think Toni Morrison makes a specific judgment on what Sethe does. She leaves the interpretation up to the other characters in the book as well as the reader. Paul D. and the rest of the community end up demonizing her because of what she did.

The community seems to understand why Sethe killed her daughter, but they cannot grasp that she actually did it. When Sethe came back from jail, she closed herself off from the community (maybe out of shame) and this is why the community ends up turning their backs on her. They saw her withdrawal as an act of pride.

Paul D. at first has trouble believing that the woman in the newspaper Stamp Paid shows him is really Sethe. He keeps saying it can't be her because that's "not her mouth". I think that this is, in part, his way of still trying to see her the way he saw her at Sweet Home. Back then, he mostly saw her as a woman to desire; and while when he shows up at 124 all these years later and still does see her in this way, he also sees her as more. Paul D. is suddenly faced with having to see her as someone who is capable of murder.

Sethe is constantly trying to explain why she did what she did. She tries to justify it to others, but, it mostly seems like she is trying to justify it to herself. She seems conflicted. She talks like she believes she did the right thing, yet when Beloved starts to guilt-trip her, Sethe becomes consumed with regret. She ends up apologizing numerously to Beloved for "leaving her behind".

As far as my judgment of Sethe, I think it's kind of hard to say it was either right or wrong. It's not a black and white situation. I am deeply sympathetic towards what many enslaved women like Sethe had to go through and I know all about the issue of infanticide. I can understand why Sethe thought it was necessary. She really only wanted to protect her children from living their lives in the same, awful way she did.

Lives of Girls and Women discussion

1. Bildungsroman: coming of age
One aspect of Del's coming of age over the course of the story is how she comes to understand the world and her role in it. I think that one of the biggest things to take away from this is how Del comes to terms with how women are expected to act. The reader sees right away that Del is intelligent and has ambitions far beyond what was the norm for females at the time. She absorbs information and thrives off of it, she wants to become a writer and she is dedicated to her schooling in order to reach that goal. That's not to say that women whose goals are to become a mother and wife aren't intelligent and don't have value in society; my point is simply that Del never really thought that way and it set her apart from what everyone told her she should want.

When Del gets older and discovers her sexuality, that's another prime example of her growing up and perhaps growing wiser from the situation she's put in with Mr. Chamberlain and the situation with Garnet as well. We read about Del struggling through pretty much everything that a person struggles with: death, peer pressure, family problems, sex, romance, etc. The reader sees the way it affects Del and can, in a way, relate to what she goes through because there's a "coming of age moment" for us all as well.

Slammerkin Discussion Question

12. When do you think Mary's downfall begins?

I think that Mary's downfall begins before she even makes her way to Monmouth. In my opinion, she dooms herself by having sex in exchange for the ribbon. In a way, it's Mary's desire for the greater things in life that ends up causing so much destruction everywhere she goes. That being said, I do think that Mary killing Mrs. Jones wasn't fate so much as it was a choice. Everything that happened was a choice. She didn't have to go into prostitution to begin with. Even after she arrived in Monmouth, Mary kept making decisions that reflected poorly on her and gave those around her insight into the kind of person she really was. There were unfortunate circumstances for Mary but, she had a chance to be safe and keep herself safe and she didn't take it.