"Now, too late. The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke the word, didn't count. They came in her yard anyway and she could not approve or condemn Sethe's rough choice" (180). Sethe's tough decision to kill her daughter rather than have her become a slave at the plantation is at once the most stunning and most important event Morrison's Beloved. In addition to the chronological, psychological, and thematic consequences of Sethe's verdict, her choice is also significant for it presents her malice and spite. However, as a result of the harsh dilemma Sethe had to face, She escapes the otherwise cruel judgment from the reader. Instead, her sufferings, both mental and physical, stimulate compassion, sympathy, and pardon from the reader.

Sethe Suggs, the protagonist of Beloved, spends her freed life chained by the debt slavery has placed on her. She is a victim of a domineering...