Blog #4: Close Reading #2-- Everything Comes With a Price

" Years ago-when 124 was alive- she had women friends, men friends from all around to share grief with. Then there was no one, for they would not visit her while the baby ghost filled the house, and she returned their disapproval with the potent pride of the mistreated. But now there was someone to share it, and he had beat the spirit away the very day he entered her house and no sign of it since. A blessing, but in its place he brought another kind of haunting: Halle's face smeared with butter and the clabber too; his own mouth jammed full of iron, and lord knows what else he could tell her if he wanted to." (113)


In this part of the book, it is all about the sacrifice that Sethe has had to endure. Specifically in this quote there were two things she had to sacrifice, her friends and comfort, and her good relationship with Paul D.
Sethe has a lot of pride, that she doesn't usually put to the side for trivial things like friendships. In this specific quote, we can see that Sethe had to give up a past life filled with support and friendships for the grief and torment her ghost baby brought to her home. That is sacrifice. Sethe had given up on Beloved and killed her because she did not want Beloved to have the life she worked so hard to move away from. Sethe's maternal instinct was to keep her child safe, and she felt the only way to keep Beloved away from the tortures of slavery was to make sure she doesn't experience it, which she solved by killing her. Because of her maternal instinct I'm sure it was hard for her to give Beloved up, but when she learns that her baby is haunting her home she has a chance to interact with the girl she gave up. So to Sethe moving away from the ghost child just to make sure she has friends to support her was not an option.

Another form of sacrifice both Sethe and Paul D had to endure is when Paul D first came to 124 and "he had beat the spirit away... and no sign of it since". This wasn't the sacrifice they had to endure, but it was interesting to me how Sethe was glad that the ghost had disappeared when 18 years ago she had defended the ghost that took root in her life. This was most likely because of the terror and violence the ghost brought with her everyday to the house 124. But I wonder why she hasn't tried to get rid of the ghost earlier, and allowed it to happen and be done by Paul D.
The one thing that Sethe was not glad to give up during the time Beloved came to her home, which was also a sacrifice, was the good relationship she had with Paul D and the peace in her mind that her husband Halle had passed away. Upon Beloved's return a lot of things have changed, like Sethe's peace of mind and Paul D's stance with Sethe and Denver. Sacrifice runs deep in this book with nearly almost every character having to endure it. Halle sacrificed his freedom for his mothers, Denver gave up her education, Sethe her children, and Paul D his relationship. Sacrifice is something characters in Beloved all endured. But Beloved is truly the living sacrifice in this novel.

- Thank you for reading!
         Halemah Shuman