Beginning of Essay
Set in post-Civil War Ohio, it is the story of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked her life in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable of killing her baby and not gone mad. Sethe, who ....

Middle of Essay
.... desperation when she sends her children away from Sweet Home, when she travels, alone and pregnant, from Sweet Home to Ohio, and when she attempts to kill her children to keep them from school teacher. Although she hardly can get on without them, Sethe, in desperation, sends her children to live with their grandmother, Baby Suggs, to keep them from becoming slaves themselves. The depth of her need for her children is expressed when she says, "I wouldn't draw breath without my children. This and the mere fact that she is saving milk for her baby girl who is living with her grandmother, shows her love for her children. Sethe suffers without them, yet ....