How Did Slavery Left Sethe In Beloved

In order to understand why slavery left Sethe in such a dreadful state of being, one must fully comprehend how appalling life was for a black person in the 1870’s. From the moment of birth, they had their unfortunate futures already set for them. They immediately became property of white people and did not possess the right to make any life decisions for themselves. During this time period, they were sold and traded as if they weren’t human. Consequently, they were conditioned to feel like animals and tools for white people to abuse. In the novel Beloved, the horrors of slavery take an immense toll on Sethe. Since she didn’t like any aspects of herself, she believed that her children were the only good part of her, leading her to feel the need …show more content…
However, the sweet life at 124 didn’t last forever. Eventually, Beloved’s spirit haunted 124 after she was killed, and Sethe’s two sons couldn’t tolerate her presence. Once her two sons left 124, they were “Claimed [and] she felt each one go the very day and hour” (Morrison 9). While Sethe was shortly successful in taking ownership of herself, she failed to take ownership of her sons, leaving her distraught and saddened. Considering her priority was to place her children before herself and claim them as a mother, she felt as if she failed at the one thing she wanted to accomplish. The four horsemen that arrived at 124 came to shatter the new picture of life that Sethe had built. They came after her to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. In the book of Revelations in the Bible, four horsemen arrive on Earth to signal that the end times are near, and those who don’t believe in Christ must repent and act immediately. Just like in the Bible, the arrival of these horsemen at 124 signified that Sethe’s hopeful life was coming to an end. Once Sethe realized that they wanted to take her and her children back, she knew she needed to take action …show more content…
At this moment, Sethe was attempting to kill all of her children. Since she didn’t know the schoolteacher was arriving, she didn't have a substantial amount of time to think of the best way to claim her children. In her eyes, this was the action she needed to take in order to save them from slavery before they could be claimed by schoolteachers. Seeing this catastrophe led schoolteachers to realize “that there was nothing there to claim” (Morrison 175). The schoolteacher was unable to fulfill his pursuit of claiming ownership of Sethe’s children. It was made clear that he wanted to claim her and her children so that they could be under his ownership. However, Sethe had successfully claimed Beloved by killing her in the shed. Beloved haunted 124 to torture Sethe for killing her. Claiming ownership of Beloved led to Sethe’s quality of life declining. She was no longer hopeful of a future. She realized that she had lost her two sons and Beloved, leaving her with only Denver. She began to regret killing Beloved, questioning if she made the right decision or not. Self-doubt began to grow and her life began to spiral out of