Resisting the Norm

Maternal Deviance in Toni Morrison’s "Beloved" and Harriet Jacobs’ "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"

Abstract

This paper examines slave mother characters who defy the master narrative set by their communities and protect their children. The focus of this paper will mainly be on Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and Sethe in Beloved by Toni Morrison who are representations of emblematic slave mothers. These two characters challenge the stereotypical concept of motherhood and deviate from the dominant view of the definition of a mother as one who only protects her children from harm. They extend the definition of “mother” to one who can ensure her children endure pain and sometimes death to express or confirm their love for them. Employing the concept of motherhood through African-American feminism, this paper analyses the two characters in terms of their personalities, their unique ways of nurturing their children and their exclusive approaches to protecting them. The paper concludes that different thematic representations are employed to enable mother characters to help their children survive the absurdities and perversions of slavery.