Traumatic events cause people to act in rash ways. Decisions made under the influence of traumatic events may in fact be altered by the event but ultimately, the actions were committed by that person. Limiting the number of triggers or negative memories that a person with an altered state of mind will face, will limit the number of times that they will act irrationally. The book Beloved unravels a story of a family who has faced the horrors of slavery and their decisions following their trauma including the killing of a young child.
The mother, Sethe, faced with the extreme burden of slavery makes the decision to kill her children in order to save them from the traumatic experiences that she holds as a slave. Toni Morrison recreated this from a true event in 1856. She tells this story multiple times throughout Beloved when she writes:
“Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a nigger 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.” (p. 175)
Sethe attempted to kill each of her children to prevent them from living a life of slavery like she had experienced.
Despite being one of the greatest blessings, children carry a burden that is extremely immense if put into the wrong hands. Sethe carried the burden of worry within her children. She worried that her kids would be facing similar discrimination and overworking that she had experienced throughout her adolescence. From the true event that Beloved was inspired by, the real mother who killed one of her children during an interview suggested that “No, they’re not going to live like that. They will not live the way that I live.” (from Toni Morrison, In Her New Novel, Defends Women) Morrison reflects the motives that the mother had to kill her children throughout Beloved and her interviews, but eventually recognizes the power of a mother’s love and decides to support the murder. In an interview, Morrison says “It was absolutely the right thing to do, but she had no right to do it. [...] I think I would have done the same thing. But it’s also the thing you have no right to do.” Later, she goes on to suggest, “Mother love is also a killer. [...] your children become yourself. But it’s not that. It’s that they become what she says in the book, that’s the best part of me. That’s what maternity is.” Morrison believes that being a mother changes one’s life in more ways than one. She believes that a mother’s love is the strongest emotion that can be felt by both the mother and the child.
A mother’s nurture and good intentions may only go so far though. Children require an extreme amount of compassion, money, energy, and assistance. Although nurture by a mother is extremely vital to a child’s survival and their success in society, the child’s family must be able to support them through all costs. Without a solid income, a child’s education and their overall input to society may be compensated. This therefore continues the cycle of poverty and financial dependence on society. An article published by The Western Front by Sarah Aitchison suggests:
“According to a Public Policy Analysis of Opportunity for Postsecondary Education in 2009, a student born into the top income quartile of family incomes, more than $110,000, is 10 times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24 than a student born into the bottom quartile, an income of less than $40,000.”
By not being born into a financially dependent family, a child will struggle for the rest of their lives towards being dependent. This may mean for some that they will turn to welfare to get by.
Although welfare appeals to be opportunistic and a great way to provide for people unable to work or to be independent, it is abused by many including people who may have chosen to not pursue an education. Morrison believes strongly in supporting mothers who are not financially able to support children that they chose to have before having solid income or even an education. In an interview called The Pain of Being Black, Morrison responds to a question about the potential for teenage mothers by saying:
“The child’s not going to hurt them. Of course, it is absolutely time consuming.
[...] What is this business that you have to finish school at 18? [...] The body is
ready to have babies, that’s why they are in a passion to do it. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it. [...] They can be teachers. They can be brain surgeons. We have to help them become brain surgeons. [...] that’s the attitude you have to have about human life. But we don’t want to pay for it.”
The interviewer then suggests that you can’t break the cycle of poverty by handing out money. To which Morrison replies by saying:
“Why not? [...] I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper
classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network. That’s shared bounty of class.”
Morrison’s responses to this interview suggest that she believes that society should provide for young adolescents to have children because it is a biologically prime time to have children. But in order for these young unfinancially stable families to succeed, society must cover their bills in order for them to get by. Throughout the world, the generous gift is provided by the government but mostly the top tax brackets.
Welfare and such programs financially impact America greatly. The greatest part of our government’s budget goes directly to the 83 different welfare programs available to the public. According to a video published by FoxBusiness, over one trillion dollars were spent on welfare during 2012 alone. As a society, we spend too much money allowing people to stay jobless and uneducated rather than providing programs to find jobs or receive a GED or a BA.
Although circumstances do exist where one should depend on the government or on other people for the assistance of raising their children, the overall responsibility of children falls on the parents who decided to conceive a child. During most circumstances, from the moment of conception, it was the parents decision to have a child not society’s decision to financially support it. It is hard to comprehend the decisions Sethe made regarding the murders of her children because she made the conscious decision to have sex. By knowing the outcome of being sexually active, she knew long before conceiving that she would have a family. Because of this knowledge, I do not believe that the murder of Beloved was justified.
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