Ones Hold Can Be So Strong

In “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” by Barbara A. Schapiro,” Schapiro touches upon many points with the feminist lens while closely reading Beloved.

One main point Schapiro mentions about Beloved is that she has a very strong hold on Sethe, and not only Sethe but the whole house, and Denver too. Schapiro says the reason it is like this is because, “The power of Beloved’s rage is directly linked to the power of Sethe’s love.” It feels as if Schapiro is saying that love and anger are primarily linked for both women  within Beloved. A lot of power is given to Beloved. Beloved primarily was able to make her way back into Sethe’s and Denver’s lives even though Denver talks about how awful the house was haunted. Also Beloved has so much power that she was even able to convince Paul D to have sex with her. The act of feeding off one’s love, like how “Beloved’s rage is directly linked to Sethe’s love,” is not right. Beloved feeds off Sethe’s love and uses it to her advantage. When Beloved enters Denver’s and Sethe’s lives, it does not seem as if she is helping Sethe or even Denver, but rather causing more conflict. She is taking the attention of Sethe, the attention that Sethe could potentially give to Paul D. Both Paul D and Sethe slowly open up to one another, and Sethe needed that.  Sethe does not need Beloved feeding off her love.  

Another scene that Schapiro highlights is when Sethe references when the white boy stole her milk.  Schapiro interprets this scene on page 17 as,  “[Sethe] feels robbed of her essence, of her most precious substance, which is her maternal milk...she was emotionally starved of a significant nurturing relationship, of which the nursing milk is symbolic. That relationship is associated with one's core being or essence; if she has no nursing milk to call her own, she feels without a self to call her own.” I think this is very interesting that Schapiro would mention how milk was a symbol within Beloved. I never realized this when reading the book. That maybe Sethe felt as if she never was able to drink her own mom’s milk first, but rather the white children were able to drink her milk first. Which made her feel as if she did not have  a nurturing relationship with her mother like she should have. The idea that Sethe was not able to “call the milk her own” seems as if she has no power. Which is true throughout the book Sethe seems rather weak and to have little to no power. The only time she seems as if she has power, is when she is hurting her own children by taking matters into her own hands. But when it comes to people treating her wrong  she allows it, but she will not let her children be treated unfairly. She does not think being raped by the white farm boys is as bad as taking away the bond of breastfeeding which she did not receive from her mother. Nor did her kids receive the milk from her. I would have never realized this if Schapiro never mentioned it.

Schapiro mentioned very strong points through the feminist lens. She made me question relationships and the bonds of love throughout the novel.