“Nobody will ever get my milk no more expect my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else- and the one time I did it was took from me- they held me down and took it. Milk that belong to my baby. Nan to nurse whitebabies and me too because Ma’am was in the rice. The nurse whitebabies got it first and I got what was left” (236).
This passage of the Beloved, shows that many of the “whitebabies” are getting Sethe’s milk and Sethe could not use the milk for her own babies. She did not want to give up her other people, other than her babies, but they pin her down, and they took her milk. Sethe did not like that, because she did not get to say in this, even though it is her milk. Sethe was not able to talk to the people that are getting her milk, because they thought that women, like Sethe, should stay quiet and not say anything. Sethe was not able to stand up for herself, because she was held down, and the “whitebabies” are taking her milk.
This shows feminist lens, because she was pinned down and her milk was taken away from her. She was not able to push them away, because the stereotypes would be that women would stay quiet and not say anything to anyone. The word “milk” was taken away from Sethe because she was being raped. She would keep saying that the men “stole her milk.” So, I thought that she was being raped by the men, and she does not know what to do, but complain about it.
Sethe loved being a mother, because she was able to see her children grow. She was able to have a family after slavery was gone, and she was happy to have her children until she had to give up her “milk” for the “whitebabies”. She wants to save her “milk” for her children, because they are her babies, and she wants to care for them. But she does not like how she has to share her “milk” to other children that are not her children. She wants to keep her “milk” to her children, because they are her children. Sethe does not like how many “whitebabies” are coming to her for milk.
I completely agree with your ideas about her not having a say in this and this meaning that women had to stay quiet. I also did this lens and I thought that in this passage it was interesting how the men just took her "milk" and were unfazed about it. Also, I thought it was interesting how you talk about Sethe wanting to save her milk because this is not something that I thought about and so it is cool to see this passage being analyzed in a different way than when I analyzed it.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that she wants to keep her milk for her own children, but on the other hand, all of her children either left her (except Denver) or have been murdered (Beloved). It's also interesting how she comes to the assumption that only white babies are taking her milk.
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