The Dehumanizing Effects to Humans

"Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a n**** woman holding a blood-soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels in the other. She did not look at them; she simply swung the baby toward the wall planks, missed and tried to connect a second time, when out of nowhere...the old n**** boy, still mewing, ran through the door behind them and snatched the baby from the arc of its mother's swing"

In this passage, schoolteacher, one nephew, one slave catcher and a sheriff come to the shed of Baby Suggs's home to catch Sethe and the rest of the family, while Sethe is attempting to murder all the children. The two boys are Howard and Buglar, the baby is Baby Beloved, the infant is Denver. We see a very different side of Sethe in this passage that is not directly shown in the rest of the book.

Toni Morrison depicts Sethe as a very strong willed and headstrong women. She will do anything to better the life of her children in a time when these people were considered equal to animals and livestock. However, like mentioned earlier, this passage illustrates a very different side of Sehte; it shows weakness in many respects. When someone murders in general there is a problem with the person. Sethe is smart enough to understand that the white slave owners are there to take her and her family back to 124. Sethe solution to the problem is to kill her children. Killing her own children makes Sethe seems as if she has lost all hope; that these children will not have a future if taken to the fields. She thinks murdering her kids is the only way they will be safe. Though, she miserably wounds her kids 3 out of the 4 remain alive. This could also be a sign of weakness. She could not fulfill the action of murdering all her kids. Sethe does not have enough strength to carry out such a crime.  

Even though some may see this as a sign of weakness, some may view it differently. In Sethe’s time, beating and lynching were common. Kids were made to work on the fields with beating if the job was not done right. Sethe probably committed such an act so her children would not have to see and live through the torture and dehumanizing tactics used against slaves at the time.