In Beloved, Toni Morrison tells the story of a former slave named Sethe, who escapes slavery but is haunted by the ghost of her dead daughter. Sethe sacrifices her daughter’s life in order to prevent her from being enslaved, which emphasizes her value of motherhood, and ultimately demonstrates that fear can lead one to make irrational decisions in order to protect the people they love. 

Sethe’s immediate decision to murder her children demonstrates her fear of losing her children to enslavement. Under slave owners’ control, Sethe along with her children are their property. As a mother enslaved, Sethe fears that her ability to love will be restricted by the demands and horrors of slavery. Thus, she will not be able to protect her children and offer them the necessary nourishment. She will always be uncertain of their safety and well-being. So, when the four horsemen arrive at her house, Sethe doesn’t hesitate to kill her children. The fear of having to return to Sweet home and being separated from her children persuades Sethe that killing them is a better fate than putting them through the traumatic experiences of being a slave separated from their mother. After murdering Beloved, Sethe doesn’t move, and the sheriff comes to take her away. This quiet moment is representative of Sethe’s acceptance of her actions. Rather than try to justify the murder or fight the sherrif, she willingly lets herself be taken because she doesn’t see any fault in what she’s done. While some would consider this act criminal, Sethe believes she is doing what is the best for her child. For nearly all of her life, she endures the horrors of slavery. Thus, Sethe’s values of motherhood are represented here as her fear of losing her children and love for them is so strong that it leads her to the irrational act of sacrificing Beloved in an attempt to save her from a life of suffering.

Sethe’s loyalty to Beloved’s ghost further represents the fear she feels of losing the connection between herself and her children. Sethe sacrifices Beloved as she believes it would make her a better mother as this act serves to protect her from a lifetime of suffering. She values her motherhood more than life which leads her to make the morally wrong decision of killing her child. While Sethe believed she acted out of protective motherly instinct, the murder actually stemmed from her own fear of being separated from her children while enslaved. Therefore, when Beloved’s spirit comes back, Sethe is not afraid; rather she feels pity for the ghost who has had to live for so long without any care from her mother. Her love for her child is so strong that she believes Beloved’s ghost has come back because she misses Sethe and not for revenge. Even after murdering Beloved, though, Sethe fears that Beloved resents her for ending her life. She spends all her time trying to rationalize her decision to murder Beloved because her fear of losing her is so strong. Beloved is a constant reminder of the bad decision she made. Her constant need to be seen as good in the eyes of her children and the fear of this not occurring is what pushes her to succumb to fatigue. Her fear, again, contributes to her irrational decision of isolating herself from society in order to please Beloved; As a result, she becomes completely cut off from society. 

                Though she is only able to murder Beloved, Sethe’s attempt to sacrifice all her children in order to prevent them from experiencing enslavement, emphasizes her value of motherhood, and ultimately demonstrates that fear can lead people to make irrational decisions for the people they love. Ultimately, the sacrifice is worthless because the death of Beloved leads to her enslavement as a ghost in death rather than as a slave who is alive. Thus, the author highlights that whether alive or dead, there is not freedom but rather fear to be found for someone who is trapped in slavery.