had really happened, confronts Sethe. She again ignoresthe issue. So when I got here, even before they let me get out of bed, I stitched her alittle something all Im saying is that it is a selfish pleasure I never had before. I couldntlet all that go back to where it was. (163) Sethe loves her children. But its that selfishpleasure which makes one question her actions. Sethe is living a life shes never known alife of freedom, freedom from brutality, from fear, and from pain. In killing her daughtershe saved herself, for the second time. Sethe was still free, and she wasnt going back toSweet Home, or to School Teacher no matter what the cost. Sethes children were a partof her, and they were a part she was not going to submit to slavery. They needed to beprotected, because the loss of them meant the loss of Sethe herself. When Sethe sawSchool Teacher coming she collected every bit if life she had made, all the parts of herthat were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through theveil, out away, over there where no one could hurt them.(163) Sethe sees no wrong herebecause it as though she were killing herself. Saving herself from all the terror she hadalready known. I was an act of love, and an act of primordial instinct. Sethes needed to protect her babies because her mother didnt protect her. Sethenever bonded or connected with her mother, and as a result she devoted her life solely toher children(Lewis 120) Sethes mother went back in rice and [Sethe] sucked from another woman whose job it was (60). Sethe and her mother never had the intimate bondbetween mother and daughter, therefore Sethe was hollow inside. It wasnt until she hadher own children that life and love filled within her. Sethes children were her life lines,and she needed them to survive. But Sethe was not going to live her life in shackles, soshe could not let her children do so. The only way to be prevented from going back intoslavery woul...
