Slavery and infanticide in Toni Morrison's beloved

The novel Beloved tells the story of Sethe who kills her daughter Beloved in a desperate state. Her aim was to save her daughter from slavery. The background of the novel is the story of Margaret Garner who in order to save her children from slavery executed her infant daughter. The Afro-American set up presents the economic factors that led to slavery in that era. Infanticide has always been the backdrop of the slavery era. Economic reasons have led to the killings of the infants at that time. Sethe's role as a mother has been often been praised by manycritics. Often Sethe is compared to the biblical figures. It is further revealed in the novel thatSethe's mother was not allowed to be a real mother herself. Her mother performed the same actof killing all the infants, leaving Sethe alone. Sethe believes herself to be a special child of her mother. The situation in which Sethe is placed is also due to the community itself. The Suggsfamily was itself unaware of Schoolteacher's approach. Beloved returns back to Sethe inflictingher with punishment making her life more miserable.