the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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(DH 195-96) in her roles as wlfe and mother, roles from
which she 1s unable to escape. In The S-er Before the
Dark, Kate's feeling of vulnerabll~ty as she takes up a
summer vocation, away from home, is descrrbed. "as if a warm
coverlng had been stripped off her, as if she were an animal
belng flayed" (SBD: 22:
5.5.1.3. The anlmal Images reach horrlfylng proportions In
Morrlson's Beloved where the slave -
woman's identity 1s
reduced to that of an anlmal, exploited for work and
breeding purposes
The fact that Sethe is mllked like a cow
and has her mllk stolen by Schoolteacher and hls nephews
reflects on the dehumanlsatlon the slave wonan had to
endure In helpless anger. Sethe laments, " they handled
me llke I was the cow, no, the goat, back behlnd the stable
because ~t was too nasty to stay In wlth the horses"
(B 2471 Taklng Sethe as an example, Schoolteacher asks hls
puplls tc put her human characterlsclcs on the left and
anlmals characterlstlcs on the rlght slde of the paper
They define her as an animal wlthout memory
Sethe is
unable to shake off thzs image, and even years later 1t
takes Paul D to assert to Sethe that she has two legs, not
four (B 2021, she is human, not anlmal, though Paul D too,
when a slave, was tied "lrke a mule" (B.277)
The whlte
girl. Amy, too, inltlally sees Sethe as nothlng more than a
pregnant anlmal which prompts her to ask. "What are you