Saturday, July 6, 2013

What is the circle and cross burnt into Sethe's mother's skin in Beloved? Why does she show it to Sethe?

The circle and cross burnt into Sethe's mother's skin was
the mark of her slavery. Like an animal, it was a sign that she was "owned," and it was
symbolic of her status as a slave with no more rights or consideration than what would
be given a beast. From Nan, the woman who cared for Sethe when she was a child, Sethe
learned that her mother had come "from the sea," and had been used and impregnated by
many white men. Sethe's mother had discarded the products of those pregnancies without
even naming them, but had kept Sethe, whose father was black; to Sethe, "she gave the
name of the black man." Like all the slave children at the place where she lived, Sethe
was only nursed by her mother for a couple of weeks, after which she was turned over to
the slave whose job it was to nurse and raise the children. Her mother never was allowed
to show her love for her own child through simple acts such as fixing her
hair.


Sethe does have a memory of the one time her mother
came, picked her up, and carried her behind the smokehouse. There, she showed her
daughter the brand of the circle and cross burnt into the skin under her breast. She
told Sethe that she was


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"...the only one got this mark now...the rest
dead...if something happens to me and you can't tell me by my face, you can know me by
this mark."



In showing Sethe
the mark burnt into her flesh, she was giving her an identity. When Sethe asked for the
same mark, however, her mother had slapped her, because although it was the best she
could give her, her identity was irrevocably determined by slavery, and the mark on her
skin was the sign of her bondage. Sethe did not understand the implications of her
mother's act at the time; she only fathomed its implications later, when she was forced
by her present owners to have "a mark of (her) own." The full impact of her mother's act
in showing Sethe the mark on her skin also became clear later. Intestimony to the
realization that her life was essentially worth nothing, and that she would likely die
because of terrible and potentially disfiguring abuse, Sethe's mother had
said,



"...if
something happens to me and you can't tell me by my face, you can know me by this
mark."


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