Beloved #3

"Or maybe I couldn't love em proper in Kentucky because they wasn't mine to love." page 190

"Listening to the doves in Alfred, Georgia, and having neither the right nor the permission to enjoy it because in that place mist, doves, sunlight, copper dirt, moon-everything belonged to the men who had the guns." page 191

"He knew exactly what she meant: to get to a place where you could love anything you chose- not to need permission for desire-well now, that was freedom." page 191

"I stopped him," she said, staring at the place where the fence used to be. "I took and put my babies where they'd be safe." page  193

These quotes are the section of the book where Stamp Paid tells Paul D about the crime Sethe committed years before. Sethe and Paul D then go over the events of her crime. Sethe tells Paul D why she attempted to kill her sons and succeeded in killing her daughter. I pull from these quotes that Sethe committed this gruesome crime to save her children from a life of slavery. They were too young to be active slaves at Sweet Home and she wanted to save them before they were old enough to know and understand slavery. She wasn't crazy or acting out of pure evil. She was showing how strong her love for her family and children were. She wanted to save her children from the brutal experiences that she and other slaves on Sweet Home had experienced. Although I understand and get why Sethe did this. It's like the point that a lot of mothers strive to make. They'd kill anyone who'd brought harm to their family or children. Or they sometimes tell their children who are making an extremely bad decision and are continuing to do so against the mother's wishes or talks back to her. The mother has or may make statements like I brought you into this world and I can take you out." Me personally, I couldn't do that. I couldn't bring more pain to myself that way. That would be one form of taking my child's burden that I couldn't go through with. True enough this was a crime but it was a justified crime. Sethe ended and attempted to end the suffering that Howard, Buglar, and Beloved would otherwise endure as slaves. She did what all mothers say they would do but have never done when put to the task. She sacrificed her life, her possible freedom, and the life of her children to keep them free and innocent as a child should be.