The concept of the ôGoddessö in literature is often linked with creation and destruction. In Greek mythology, the beginning of creation occurred when Mother Earth arose out of the chaor of the universd. In Toni MorrisonÆs Beloved, Sethe, a female slave who endures chaos, stands as a symbol of creation, one acting as both savior and redeemer of her African American community efforts to emerge from the chaos of slavery.
Sethe functions in the novel as a symbol of virginal Goddess as well as a symbol of fertility and creation. Sethe is oppressed and abused as a slave, entrapped with other African Americans in a social and political institution that limits freedom and expression. Sethe, we are told by Morrison (1987, p. 9) is ôpregnant every year.ö Fertility and fruitfulness are symbols of the earth mother Goddess and Sethe represents these qualities to the African American males in the Eden-like Sweet Home (Ambrose, Effland, & Mayer, 2005). The annual blossoming of life in Sethe is related to the annual blooming of life in nature. The men in her community await her mating choice by having sex with animals, being restless in sleep, and rubbing their thighs. However, we see that as the symbol of earth mother or Goddess in her community, the men treat Sethe with reverence as both savior and redeemer, refusing even to touch her when she serves them meals, ôIf she brought food to them in the fieldsàthey never took it from her hands. They stood back and waited for her to put it on the ground and leave,ö (Morrison, 1987, p. 22). Images of the goddess are also apparent in the novel when Sethe consummates her marriage in a cornfield, similar to rituals that involve goddesses of fertility, (Ambrose, Effland, and Mayer, 2005).
Nature is used heavily in the novel as a symbol of SetheÆs role as creator in the midst of the hell of slavery. SetheÆs ability to transform is also a quality of the goddess in
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