Yourself Vs. the World

Yourself vs. The world

There are always going to be people around us judging and criticizing everything that we do. Our flaws are pointed out, made fun of, and looked at. Most of the time when someone is succeeding, we wish to seek out any flaws that would destroy their social status quo. It is in our human nature to be jealous and see the person secretly fail. Rude comments will be whispered here and there and some woud feel that the only thing to do is hide and disappear from the crowd. For those who are living in the shadows, we must stand up for ourselves, keep our head up high, keep our chin up and tell ourselves “I’ll rise” (Angelou 30). Opinions of others should not matter to who we are and what we look like. The poem Still I Rise speaks to girls and women that are constantly being thrown and stepped over, but only for them to stand up and be stronger than before. Just like Sethe from Toni Morrison’s Beloved, she was accustomed with humiliation and suffering in the past, with little to rely on, and paid her price, making her an independent, strong and maternal mother that stood her ground, “never [running] from anything on this earth” ever again (Morrison 18).

Sethe went through many hardships in the past that piled on top of each other throughout the years, making her stronger every day. A chockcherry tree grows on her back that represents the years that she had spent in slavery wither it was cooking in the kitchen or getting milked by

schoolteacher and his nephews or even getting whipped. She shows courage and strength “with iron eyes and a backbone to match” that makes her put up a shield to protect herself from encountering anything from the past (Morrison 10). Her determination of reaching freedom while pregnant with Denver showed that she was willing to do anything to get her children away from slavery, even if she had no physical strength to go on. With the help of Amy Denver and Stamp Paid, she was able to give birth and get both of them across the Hudson River to freedom, and soon was slowly healing from all the suffering and pain. When Sethe saw schoolteacher coming, it took her a lot of courage and in little time to decide that the best thing for them was to all go to heaven instead of going back to Sweet Home, another misery to add on to the stack of piles of hardships. Although she had let Paul D into her life, she stood up for herself and for her children and fought against his criticism over her past mistake of murdering her daughter. “So long” she said, not only bidding her farewell to Paul D when he referred to her as an animal, but also the past (Morrison 195). Her strength to overcome her past is dealt by trying not to encounter them again.

Sethe’s actions were maternal that embraced a loving and caring passion for her children. Growing up, she did not have a motherly figure to look up to. Sethe’s relationship with her mother was indefinite