Beloved Rhetorical Analysis

Twisted

In Beloved, Toni Morrison shows the distortedness of Sethe’s actions and feelings as she murders her children, commenting on the psychologically and emotionally scarring effects of slavery on its victims. Morrison describes Sethe’s view of the murder of her children: “And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple” (192). Using the conditional “if” when describing Sethe’s thinking in this moment of terror as well as calling her thought process “simple” suggest Sethe’s reaction to the arrival of schoolteacher was instinctual; she saw only one course of action and, without even thinking clearly, took it. Such was the fear she had for schoolteacher and the pain she had suffered as a slave that this fear and pain had molded her subconscious; she was hardwired for this course of action–broken. Morrison mirrors the escalation of Sethe’s panic and desperation with the repetition of compounding “no’s.” She goes on to describe Sethe’s course of action as she herself saw it:  “[She] collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them.” The doubly significant phrase “every bit of life she had made” conveys the magnitude of Sethe’s actions, underscoring not only that Sethe took everything she had–emotionally and physically–to the woodshed but also that these were not merely possessions, they were living children–children she had brought into the world. Morrison’s use of the three adjectives precious, fine, and beautiful is emphasized with the addition of the unneeded conjunction “and,” setting up an immediate juxtaposition with her actions. Described with three verbs of increasing roughness and the asyndetic removal of the same conjunction from the previous phrase, Sethe’s actions become incompatible with her feelings; Morrison expresses the way Sethe’s whole world was twisted, turned upside down with the arrival of schoolteacher. Sethe’s consideration of the murder of her children as saving them and taking them “where no one could hurt them” also shows the twisted, upside down way of life that slavery is; more than conveying the extent to which Sethe was emotionally broken by her time as a slave (though she was), this phrase shows that many who experience slavery would prefer death, even for their children.