Motherhood

“Nan holding her with her good arm, waving the stump of the other in the air. ‘Telling you. I am telling you, small girl Sethe,’ and she did that. She told Sethe that her mother and Nan were together from the sea. Both were taken up many times by the crew. ‘She threw them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The others from more whites she also threw away. Without names, she threw them. You she gave the name of the black man. She put her arms around him. The others she did not put her arms around. Never. Never. Telling you. I am telling you, small girl Sethe.’ As small girl Sethe, she was unimpressed. As grown-up woman Sethe she was angry, but not certain at what.”

  p. 74

In this passage,  Sethe is recounting a memory of her grandmother, Nan, explaining how Sethe came to be born and named. Through Sethe’s recounting and her grandmother’s description, the dynamics of Sethe’s own relationship with her mother are revealed. With that revelation, specific childhood experiences can be linked to Sethe’s independence and strength.

Sethe’s grandmother, Nan, begins the story of how Sethe was born and named by describing the setting. Her and her daughter were traveling together across the “sea” from Africa to America, to be sold as slaves. Even with this minor point, immense context is brought to the setting at which Sethe was born. Two women, independent of their husbands or male guardians, are facing the harshest form  of adversity alone. To add to this, Nan continues to explain how both her and her daughter, Sethe’s mother, were “taken up” by crewmembers regularly. Regarding being sexually assaulted, Nan’s comment strengthens the understanding that the two women faced extreme hardship at the time of Sethe’s birth. The significance of the setting lends itself to the idea that Sethe’s mother and grandmother were strong, persevering women who defied all odds to stay alive- and keep Sethe alive as well.

With this in mind, a connection can be made between the strength demonstrated throughout the book by Sethe herself, and the strength her mother and grandmother had. Yet, an additional angle adds to Sethe’s relationship with her mother, for Sethe has “the name of a black man”. This is very significant, because not only does Sethe’s character appear even stronger with a male name, and thus a male connotation, but adding to that is the fact that the man she is named after is her father.

Sethe’s mother was brutally abused and raped by many different crewmen during the journey to the U.S. Sadly she became pregnant from these rapes, where she eventually “ threw [her babies] all away”- except for Sethe. Rather than being yet another white crew member who raped Sethe’s mother, Sethe’s father was a “black man” whom Sethe’s mother loved dearly. Like Nan explains, Sethe’s mother “put her arms around [her father]”, demonstrating how Sethe’s mother found solitude and comfort in being with Sethe’s father. With this, it can be inferred that Sethe’s mother found this same solitude and comfort in Sethe. Sethe was the only connection her mother had left with her father, so pressure to give her mother the same sense of security as her father did was put on Sethe. This additional challenge, in addition to being a black female child born into slavery, added to the adversity that has given Sethe so much strength and independence and that has detached Sethe’s character from a stereotypical black women’s at the time.