In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison reveals the horrors of slavery and how it destroys an individual's identity and role within the community.

... Sharon Quesada A.P. English Period 3 May 20, 2002 In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison reveals the horrors of slavery and how it destroys an individual's identity and role within the community. Slavery in its fundamental nature acts as an obstacle to motherhood. The way in which Baby Suggs and Sethe deal with motherhood is relative to their situations. Sethe is forced to murder her daughter so that slavery will not overcome her. Slavery acted in direct opposition to the ability of a woman to be a proper mother. Through the usage of symbolism, Morrison explores and depicts the internal conflicts that lead Sethe to the extremity of killing her child. Throughout the novel, Morrison uses the characters Sethe and Baby Suggs to illustrate how their roles as mothers was dehumanized because of slavery. Sethe loved her children, her own flesh and blood, enough to take their life away because of the fear that

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