Motherhood+Motif+and+Themes

=As the motif of Motherhood emerges, record moments when the theme is developed interestingly. Add your ideas about what Morrison is trying to say and how she explores the theme.=

Under slavery, mothers could not be mothers--they had their children taken from them etc.
 * Book 1, Section 1, p. 5 "four taken, four chased...My first born, all I can remember of her is how she loved the burnt bottom of bread."

Being a mother can be difficult for women when they are faced with hard decisions and bad situations. Sethe saw this first hand when she tried to escape from slavery with her children. She tried to do what was best for them, but her actions have haunted her ever since.
 * Section 1.1, p. 18 "I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms. No more running---from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much! Do you hear me? It cost too much."

Sethe loved her baby girl and only wanted to provide her with life. But as a slave white men took that away from her by taking away her breast milk. She could no longer care for her child, and was treated like an animal at the same time. Being a mother was a hard thing for women.
 * Section 1.1, p.19 "After i left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That's what they came in there for. Held me down and took it."

Sethe cared about her baby girl more than anything no matter what was happening to her, she was just making sure that her daughter had everything that she needed. Sethe didn't feel any particular closeness with her own mother at Sweet Home. Her mother was just another "ma'am" that Sethe was expected to follow orders from. Denver is incredibly jealous of Paul D being around and taking all of Sethe's time. This shows how much love she has for her mother which is alarming to Paul D because slave mothers should not become too attached to their children. Sethe had loved her baby girl very much. at this time slavery had caused a great deal of pain for mother-child relationships. Sethe would do anything to save her baby from a horrible fate.
 * Section 1.1 p. 19, "All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl."
 * Section1.3, p. 30 "Of that place where she was born (Carolina maybe? or was it Louisiana?) she remember only song and dance. Not even her own mother, who was pointed out to her by the eight-year old child who watached over the young ones--pointed out as the one among many backs turned away from her, stooping in a watery field. Patiently Sethe waited for this particular back to gain the row's end and stand. What she saw was a cloth hat as opposed to a straw one, singularity enough in that world of cooing women each of whom was called Ma'am."
 * Chapter 4, p. 54 "I don't care what she is.....I'll protect her when I'm alive and I'll protect her wheni ain't."
 * Section 1.4, p.54 "For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love." Paul D observes that it is important that women don't fall in love with anyone, mainly because of the unpredictability of the type of culture that slaves lived in. Baby Suggs' and Sethe's track record with children helps put some validity in Paul D's thought.
 * Section 1, p. 5 "For a baby she throws a powerful spell," said Denver. "No more powerful than the way i loved her."

Amy Denver takes on a mother role when Sethe is going through her painful labor. Even though she is young, Amy helps Sethe by telling her stories, singing to her, massaging her feet, making her temporary shoes and trying to find something to help her back. These are all things that a mother would do for her daughter.
 * 1.8 p. 80 "Maybe I ought to break them blossoms open. Get that puss running, you think?"
 * 1.8 p.83 "She (Amy) tore two pieces from Sethe's shawl, filled them with leaves and tied them over her feet, chattering all the while."

Sehte's milk appears to be a major source of where her mothering aspects come from because she cares for both children with it and uses it to soothe not only her, but her children.
 * Section 1.1 p. 19, "All I knew was I had to get my milk to my baby girl."
 * Book 1, 1.8, p.93, "When the nursing was over and the newborn was asleep-its eyes half open, its tongue dream-sucking"

Section 1.9 pg.110 Sethe makes it to her children and Baby Suggs. She refers to her daughter as "crawling-already? girl". Sethe has not had the chance to be a mother to her daughter but is delighted that she has been reunited with her. It is obvious that being a good mother and nursing her children is very important to Sethe.

For the first time, Denver sees and feels what it was like for her mother trying to escape. Sethe showed so much love for her kids, trying to get to her baby to deliver her milk, when she was in so much pain from her other pregnancy.
 * Section 1.8 pg. 91 "She is tired, scared maybe, and maybe even lost. Most of all she is by herself and inside her is another baby she has to think about too. Behind her dogs, perhaps; guns probably; and certainly mossy teeth."

Sethe puts Beloved's needs in front of her own as a mother would.
 * Section 1.13, page 130 paperback "'Crazy girl,' said Sethe. 'You the one out here with nothing on.' And stepping away and in front of Paul D, Sethe took the shawl and wrapped it around Beloved's head and shoulders."

Baby Suggs remembers her children with remorse and bitterness. She would not let herself love or remember them whilst in slavery because she knew that it would cause her pain when they were inevitably separated.
 * Section 1.15, pg. 139 "Seven times she had done that: held a little foot; examined the fat fingertips with her own... All seven were gone or dead.

There are some things that just stay between a mother and her children.
 * ""I made that song up," said Sethe. "I made it up and sang it to my children. Nobody knows that song but me and my children."" pg. 175 2.1

Life for mothers in slavery was tough. They had to not only work like normal, but also take care of their children.
 * Section 1.18 pg. 188 hardcover. "Oh they knew all about it. How to make that thing you use to hang the babies in the trees-so you could see them out of harm's way while you worked the fields... I tied Buglar when we had all that pork to smoke. Fire everywhere and he was getting into everything. I liked to lost him so many times. One he got up on the well, right on it. I flew. Snatched him just in time."

After Sethe killed her baby she nursed her new born. This symbolizes death and rebirth.

Sethe finally accepts that Beloved is her daughter reincarnate, and this gives her peace, as she has a second chance.
 * Section 2.2 Pg. 241 hardcover "No matter how much I wanted to. I couldn't lay down nowhere in peace, back then. Now I can. I can sleep like the drowned, have mercy. She come back to me, my daughter, and she is mine."

A mother will do whatever she has to for her children
 * "Beloved ate up her life, took it, swelled up with it, grew taller on it. And the older woman yielded it up without a murmur." pg. 250 3.1

Sethe desperately wants Beloved to be her dead daughter. She tries to convince herself.
 * Section 2.1 Pg. 217 "You are my Beloved. You are mine. You are mine. You are mine."