The Abortion Parallel
Beloved's death. The gruesome details finally uncovered. Morrison finally brought it back full circle. Sethe murdered her child. In this moment of vulnerability, she swore she would never let her children go through what she had, and decided they would be "safe" this way. Not only can we compare this moment to abortion, but we can also realize Beloved's implications. Why is she so infatuated with the one who killed her? Why exactly is she back?
Now, onto the topic of this post. The young Beloved, had her life halted without her consent. Her mother made the choice to 'protect' her. What if she would've preferred the chance at life? The same goes for a conceived child. Pro-Life arguers use this same argument when speaking against abortion. The baby was never given a choice but basically murdered by their own mother. However, what this argument fails to comprehend is the anguish the mother feels when forced to kill her child. It also brings up this idea of age. How old does a child have to be to "think for themselves"? When does it go from the term 'abortion' to the term 'murder'?
Sethe, depicted as the ultimate maternal figure, made the most difficult choice of her life in a heartbeat. For her decision, she is ostracized by her community and has only Baby Suggs backing her up. Do you guys believe that this is fair? Is what she did wrong? Answer down below!
I see what you mean about how Sethe's decision was made without Beloved's consent, though connecting their situation to abortion is incredibly problematic. Abortions aren't the same as slicing your two-year-old daughter's throat with a handsaw, and any comparisons in that vein only serve to spread misinformation and further shame to women who choose undergo an abortion. Most abortions are as simple as taking a pill, and most abortions happen long before the developing fetus remotely resembles a human child. I think the debate over Sethe's actions is valid, though the question of abortion has absolutely no place in this conversation.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say that I agree more with Anya, I don't think abortion is murder. I don't think you can compare abortion to Sethe's actions. I do think that Sethe's actions are understandable, she was in an impossible situation. Also, if you remember, Ella didn't hate Sethe for killing Beloved, she just hated how Sethe acted afterwards, because Ella understood Sethe.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Anya. These situations are completely different. Regardless of how we feel about what Sethe did, it is not the same thing as making the choice to abort. In terms of Sethe, I think that she made an incredibly difficult if not impossible choice and in my opinion it's hard for anyone in this current time period to fully understand or judge her fairly.
ReplyDeleteOne crucial distinction here is that the baby Beloved is an asset to schoolteacher--by legal definition, his "property" that Sethe has unlawfully absconded with. He is there to reclaim the baby (and all the children) along with Sethe, and she makes a spontaneous choice on the baby's behalf--to spare her from the life she knows is waiting at Sweet Home ("no one is every going to enter my child's features on the 'animal' side of the ledger," as she puts it). Even calling it "murder" here doesn't seem quite right--the situation is so far removed from pretty much any context we can imagine a "murder" taking place in. More like a mercy killing? And remember that Sethe's intent is to take her own life as well--to put all of them on the "other side" where they are "safe." The baby has been alive and part of the family for almost two years--she drools and giggles and likes to crawl up the stairs. She's not an abstraction but a living person that Sethe is bound to protect. She makes an unimaginably difficult choice in a heartbeat to try to protect her.
ReplyDeleteOk I agree with the previous comments that abortion isn't murder. However, I kind of get what you're saying- I can see how abortion and SEthe's actions are both incredibly difficult decisions to make and could both be seen as for the better. And both actions are extremely controversial. The topic of abortion is highly controversial to this day (the way that the protesters outside of Planned Parenthood for example ostracize recipients) and the backlash that Sethe received was super harsh. Again, I see where you were going but I politely disagree.
ReplyDeleteYou've touched on a pretty interesting point. I personally feel that perhaps it may be a bit of a stretch to connect it too solidly to the novel Beloved, but I can see similar parallels in the situation in terms of grief. If Beloved (the character) represents Sethe's regret, it makes sense how Beloved's return completely drains her. In the same sense, maybe mother's who are forced to make the choice to have an abortion feel a similar sense of rememory in which they believe their actions were inevitable yet feel grief and regret at the same time
ReplyDeleteI think a good distinction to make here is that most abortions are performed when the fetus is little more than a clump of cells, rather than a feeling and conscious being like Beloved was at the time of her death. I think it would cause much more cognitive dissonance to end the life of an infant with likes and dislikes who was already able to crawl, instead of an undeveloped zygote that wouldn't be able to survive outside of the womb. However, Beloved did remind me of the poem we read in class about the woman addressing her unborn child that she couldn't justify bringing into the world.
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