The character of Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Beloved cannot be viewed as either a positive or negative portrayal of a black woman simply because Morrison gives her too much dimension.  Her being is so fully explored that she is wholly human, and as such she reflects all the good and bad that real human beings manifest in daily living.

For example, it would be easy to view Sethe as a completely victimized black woman.  She endured much misery in the slave trade, and as a woman it is understood that she was doubly subjugated.  Then, there is the matter of her suppressed and fierce rage and pride, which compel her to lash out at her world and kill her own children, rather than see them follow her into a life of slavery.  Even so drastic an action is still the response of a victim, and a history of having known nothing but abuse seems to inform all of Sethe’s life.

Morrison, however, is incapable of presenting so narrow a character.  The author understands that life goes on, and victims survive as best they can, often creating other victims unintentionally.  Beyond this, Sethe also demonstrates great strength of will, perhaps of the kind that fueled her decision to destroy her own children.  She works as a cook in a local restaurant, but the work means nothing; she would find a way to survive anyway, as she is unconcerned that the community regards her as aloof and strange.  The reader knows, too, that there must be a core of power within her, if only by virtue of how, in her youth, the men who desired her were forced to wait on her choice.

Sethe’s entire journey in life as a black woman is marked by both helplessness and reaction.  A creature of her time, the role of slave was the larger part of her being, in terms of what composed her world.  Within this, however, and also after she is free, all the conflicts and powers of her own nature surface.  Morrison develops a black slave woman who is never any one thing, as no black woman is.  Even confined by real bondage or the shadows and horrors of her past, she struggles to save whatever in her life she can, and acts, as human beings will, in both good and bad ways.