hey "dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore" (Morrison, 308). Thus, Sethe insists that she protected her beloved daughter and also herself from "undreamable dreams" in which "a gang of whites invaded her daughter's private parts, soiled her daughter's thighs and threw her daughter out of the wagon" (309). For Sethe, being brutally overworked, maimed, or killed is subordinate to the overarching horror of being raped and "dirtied" by whites; even dying at the hands of one's mother is subordinate to rape (Barnett, 421).
Morrison demonstrates that Sethe understands the powerlessness that can arise from sexual violation. One sexual violation can create a rift in a person's life against which all time is measured thereafter. But repeated sexual violations like those experienced during slavery can cause a disjointed and confused sense of self and consequently a fragmented sense of history. Morrison portrays this shattered and damaged self-image through Beloved's fragmentary and repetitive form, whi
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