In what ways does the prospect of survival motivate the actions of Sethe from "Beloved", Sophie from "Sophies choice" and Rosa "shawl'?
Of course, the actions of Sophia, Sethe and Rosa are dictated by the circumstances under which they find themselves. Each of these stories is set at a time when these people are faced with lots of challenges in their lives.
In Sophie’s Choice, Sophie if forced to take actions in response to what befalls her. As a Nazi survivor, she feels that juxtaposition to Nathan would relieve her. However, as events unfold, she discovers that her marriage is in troubles when Nathan, a self-proclaimed scientist, deeply engages in drug abuse. Later, she engages with Stingo in an extra marital affair which also compels her to flee from the furious Nathan. This is necessary because it is the only way through which he can escape from Nathan to whom she surprisingly returns before they commit suicide. These are necessary for relieving her of perpetual agonies.
In the Beloved, Sethe also demonstrates the same conduct. Having escaped slavery in Sweet Home, she intentionally decides to regress such memories. Since she does not want anything reminding her of slavery, she opts to murder her eldest daughter. Later, she decides to attack Paul D, her visitor who had provoked his memories of Sweet Home (Schapiro, 2001). According to her, she does not see anything wrong in (attempting to) kill her children. In her own words, she exclaims that she was "trying to put my babies where they would be safe." As the author says, she attempts to ‘murder her own best self’ in order to salvage her “fantasy of the future.”
In the Shawl, Rosa is faced with the same difficult situation. On her way to the Concentration Camp, she desperately chooses to hide her younger daughter, Magda in the shawl in order to protect her from the Nazis who could easily kill her. On several occasions, she has to give her the same shawl to suck. This mostly happens when she runs short of breast milk. Even if she says ‘Stella, cold, cold, and the coldness of hell’ in response to Stella’s demand for the shawl, she denies her because it is very important for the survival of the malnourished emaciated Magda (Ozick, 2002)
Works Cited
Ozick, Cynthia. "The Shawl." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York, Oxford UP, 2002. 601-606.
Schapiro, Barbara (2001). "The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved". Contemporary Literature (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press) 32 (2): 194–210.
