Did Sethe Do The Right Thing?

Here's what Toni Morrison had to say.

Over the weekend, I finally got my hands on a copy of Toni Morrison: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. If you’re unfamiliar with this excellent book series from Melville House, have I got news for you: Following the death of a cultural icon, Melville House publishes a book that features that person’s last published interview as well as other especially illuminating interviews from their career. In addition to the Toni Morrison edition which was published in 2020, I have their editions on Prince, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jane Jacobs.

ANYWAY, this weekend I read an interview Toni Morrison did in 1987 with Charlayne Hunter-Gault for PBS Newshour, presumably during the promotional tour for her then-new novel Beloved.

While discussing Sethe and the violent double-tragedy (enslavement itself and Sethe, a runaway slave, trying to kill all of her children in order to spare them from a lifetime of enslavement) that sets the novel’s events in motion, the interviewer and author share a moment of candor that took my breath away:

I encourage you to read this exchange several times because it will change color every time you do.

In addition to Hunter-Gault’s honesty, what Morrison offers is as rich and befuddling as life itself: “It was the right thing to do… [Laughing] but she had no right to do it.”

If you follow me on Twitter, or hang out with me IRL, you know I say it a lot but I really do mean it every single time: “WHEW!” Anyway, if y’all need me, I’ll be over here re-reading Beloved yet again.

Easy answers aren’t always valuable answers.