Sethe's Breastmilk
The protagonist in the novel, Sethe, is deprived of her femininity by being denied motherhood. Infants born into slavery are typically removed from their mothers to disallow any chance to form emotional attachment, making it easier to debase women as human beings by denying them the natural desire to mother their children. The idea of motherhood and a mother’s identity was not just seen in the physical separation between a mother and her child. In an attempt to save her children, Sethe sacrifices herself. In a very abusive and animalistic fashion, Sethe loses the essence of motherhood, her breastmilk. Throughout the novel, Sethe focuses on her breast milk, the life-force she is naturally supplied