Too Much Love

My emotional response to Beloved is mixed because I can not decide whether I believe Sethe's actions are okay or not. I think Sethe had the right intentions in protecting her children from slavery. She could have chose to hide her children rather than murdering them. I think that it's hard to put yourself in her situation because its hard to imagine what that would be like. It would be so scary to live in constant fear of losing a loved one because of the evil actions of a few people. I think Sethe's love for her children is over bearing and ridiculous. She guarded Denver from the outside world and she basically cannot function in social situations. Often times today parents are still overprotective at times. A common bond though is that that it is all out of love. Too much love can be bad because it leads to being overprotective. A great parent knows when to back off and let their child live the way they want to live and they need to let go at the right time. It's hard for me to imagine having that much love for someone and allowing myself to act in such that way. I think Sethe crossed the line when she killed her child. Out of all of her options she chose to take away the most precious gift, which is life. Life can never be given back and it's a shame that Sethe was so selfish to take that away from her daughter.