Toni Morrison: Challenges as a Female Writer

I think a lot of times what we neglect in our discussions about Beloved is the female aspect of it all.  Yes, Sethe is a slave just like Paul D, Halle, Sixo, and the other men at Sweet Home. But what sets her apart is that she is a woman, which calls for experiencing different types of emotions and having different reactions to certain events.  I noticed that in our Socratic Seminar, the element of gender did not come up in either circle (I can't speak for the chat while I was on the inside). Who's to say that if Sethe's character had been a man that this male character wouldn't have acted differently? Would he have still killed Beloved? Would he have been more brutal in an attempt to show his love, or would he have been detached as the stereotype goes?

The following video is one in which Toni Morrison reflects on why she chooses to write specifically about black women.

To a large degree, I think Morrison is right when she says that writing about black women offers her a broader spectrum to explore in her books.  As she implies, writing about white women or even just the African race wouldn't offer nearly as many facets as writing about black women does.  Therefore, I think that Sethe's gender plays a large role in her decision to kill Beloved. As I stated earlier, a black man, who still underwent the same horrors and tragedies as Sethe did, may have reacted differently in the situation which would limit Morrison's opportunities in writing this novel.