Sethe In Beloved

"You know as well as I do that people who die bad don 't stay in the ground."(188) Beloved as a character is Sethe 's baby girl who has returned to her in the form of a fully grown woman. Beloved rises out of water like a baby being born, and from the first moment the reader is introduced to her, they get the feeling that she is much more than she seems. Here it shall be explored how Beloved 's physical characteristics, along with the way she acts, show us that she is Sethe 's murdered baby girl, that has risen again.
From the first moment that the reader is introduced to Beloved, they are given the impression of a supernatural being. "A fully dressed women walked out of the water." This has an unnatural feeling to it, almost like that of
As Beloved becomes more confident she begins to treat Sethe as her mother, while she herself acts like a toddler. This again makes the reader think of Beloved as Sethe 's baby. Sethe 's baby was just crawling when she was killed and therefore may have already been talking, but was still a toddler and yet to mature. Proof of this is seen with in the novel, "she made demands. Anything she wanted she got, and when Sethe ran out of things to give her, Beloved invented desires."(204) Another signal is Beloved 's sibling rivalry with Denver. Although Beloved loves Denver she claims Sethe as her own and seems to be jealous that Denver has gotten more time with Sethe. The reader finds evidence of this when Beloved claims Sethe as her own and states, "I am Beloved and she is mine"(210). Beloved also gets Sethe to exclude Denver from their games. Her similarities with a toddler and the infatuation said toddler would have with its mother, in this case Sethe, are also seen in how angry Beloved gets when she does not receive all of Sethe’s attention, she has “anger that ruled when Sethe did or thought anything that excluded herself.”(118). However it is not just Denver that Beloved drives away. Beloved also gets Paul D to leave by seducing him, and due to her constant need for attention ensures that Sethe loses her job and has to spend all of her time at home. She even
Beloved. Vintage.2007
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Sascha van Gelder, 43343708
Portfolio Assignment Beloved
I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where secondary material has been used (either from a printed source or from the internet), this has been carefully acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the department’s policy in this regard. I have not allowed anyone else to borrow or copy my work.