“Sethe no longer combed her hair or splashed her face with water. She sat in the chair licking her lips like a chastised child while Beloved ate up her life, took it, swelled up with it, grew taller on it…. Sethe was trying to make up for the handsaw; Beloved was making her pay for it. Yet she knew Sethe’s greatest fear was the same one Denver had in the beginning- that Beloved might leave”.
In these lines we see how Sethe belittled herself and as the result, her self importance diminished to absolutely nothing. In previous lines, it was said to love yourself, your hands, neck etc… As the novel proceeded and Beloved was introduced, Sethe’s obsession has shifted to the figure that of her dead daughter. As Sethe depreciated, Beloved grew and matured due to Sethe’s non-existence. This painted a portrait in my mind of Beloved tall and youthful, shining brighter than anyone. While, Sethe is old and worn out and is looking up to her daughter Beloved that is reborn into something greater. Beloved was portrayed as sucking the life out of Sethe the longer she was around. Sethe felt the need to explain the reason why she killed her daughter over and over again, not to prove to Beloved but to prove to herself. That is a guilt that she never really overcame as she escaped to her freedom. As we saw, she was angry at Baby Suggs for trying to live her life as she prepared a feast. The theory behind why she was mad was because she never really labeled herself as “freed”. In these chapters, we saw Sethe holding onto Beloved tighter than ever and she has let go of Denver because 3 is an odd number and one would always be left out. Sethe has let go of her self worth, her future; as she was fired from her job. She needed to prove that she was never letting go of Beloved ever again.
