Closed reading (pg.76)

When Sethe was young, her mother’s friend Nan told her this story about when Sethe’s mother and she were on the same boat to America. They were both often raped by the sailors during the voyage. Sethe’s mother then “threw them all away(76)” except Sethe. This passage is critical to my lens since it’s, obviously, about women getting raped. What stands out the most, though, is that how Sethe’s mother could not love any child that she produced due to the sailors and would get rid of them.

One quote that stuck out was  “She threw them all away but you.” She got rid of all the children given to her by the sailors. How did she get rid of them? Did she kill them? Did she throw them overboard? She did say “the one she got from the crew she threw away on the island.” What did she do to that baby on the island? This quote sticks out since it says a lot about how Sethe’s mother dealt with being raped. She dealt with it negatively, by killing the babies--which is what the quote implies--that were given to her due to being raped. The final quote sticks out was when Nan tells young Sethe she was given “the name of the black man.” This implies that Sethe’s mother slept with a black man and was given Sethe by him, so she decided to keep her. She kept her because she wanted to sleep with that black man. Therefore, she kept Sethe since she was not given to her by being raped. She kept the Sethe because she was not forced upon her like the other babies given to her by the men who raped her.

These quotes connect to my lens by showing how all the sailors would overpower the African women on the ship and rape them. They say that women are easily able to be used for sex. She refuses to nurse and care for any children she produces due to her being raped. Had she received the children willingly, she would have likely kept them, but because she was violently raped, she did not feel obligated to care for those children. Since Sethe’s mother was black, the sailors did not find it necessary to treat her with respect as they would a white woman.