Sethe's choice: 'Beloved' and the ethics of reading

Style, Summer, 1998 by James Phelan

Furthermore, before the third telling concludes, Morrison uses Paul D to provide an internal counter to Sethe's perspective. Paul D, of course, is the most sympathetic audience Sethe could find within the world of the novel, someone who knows first-hand the evils of slavery and who also loves her. But Paul D immediately rejects Sethe's judgments and imposes his own, much harsher ones. Morrison's narrator shows that he immediately thinks, "[W]hat she wanted for her children was exactly what was missing in 124: safety" (164). Morrison also has Paul D say to Sethe that "your love is too thick," that "what you did was wrong, Sethe," and that "you got two feet, Sethe, not four" (163-65).

Of these responses, the first resonates most with the authorial audience. Our own experience of the narrative to this point shows that 124 has not been a safe place: it is literally haunted by the ghost of the dead baby and her return as Beloved, metaphorically haunted by the consequences of Sethe's rough choice. Furthermore, Sethe's own constant work "of beating back the past" indicates that her narrative does not accurately capture the complexity of her choice. Part Two will give further evidence, in Sethe's extreme efforts to expiate her guilt toward Beloved, that she herself does not fully believe that her choice was the right one.

But Morrison also gives us reason not to endorse the rest of Paul's negative judgments. His remark that Sethe has "two feet not four" clearly links his assessment with schoolteacher's, and that link affects our response to each one's judgment. On the one hand, Paul D's seeing Sethe's action in the same terms as schoolteacher does reminds us of the horror of the physical description of what schoolteacher saw. But on the other, if Paul D adopts schoolteacher's terms, his assessment clearly cannot be entirely right. Again, Morrison's technique leads us to rule out certain ethical responses - schoolteacher's racist one, Sethe's own heroic one - without leading us to a clear position.

Connections

If the three tellings do not themselves position us clearly, perhaps the connections between these tellings and other parts of the novel will. I would like to look at the two most significant connections, both of which give greater weight to Sethe's perspective on her choice without finally indicating that Morrison endorses that perspective. Consider, first, the retrospective light cast by Sethe's account to Beloved about what happened when she overheard one of schoolteacher's lessons:

This is the first time I'm telling it and I'm telling it to you because it might help explain something to you although I know you don't need me to do it. To tell it or even think over it. You don't have to listen either, if you don't want to. But I couldn't help listening to what I heard that day. He was talking to his pupils and I heard him say, "Which one are you doing?" And one the boys said, "Sethe." That's when I stopped because I heard my name, and then I took a few steps to where I could see what they was doing. Schoolteacher was standing over one of them with one hand behind his back. He licked a forefinger a couple of times and turned a few pages. Slow. I was about to turn around and keep on my way to where the muslin was, when I heard him say, "No, no. That's not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don't forget to line them up." I commenced to walk backward, didn't even look behind me to find out where I was headed. I just kept lifting my feet and pushing back. When I bumped up against a tree. my scalp was prickly. One of the dogs was licking out a pan in the yard. I got to the grape arbor fast enough, but I didn't have the muslin. Flies settled all over your face, rubbing their hands. My head itched like the devil. Like somebody was sticking fine needles in my scalp. I never told Halle or nobody. (193)