Milk and Butter: Sethe and Halle
Multiple times throughout Beloved , we hear about Sethe's milk: “I was pregnant with Denver but I had milk for my baby girl" (19). "...After her milk had been stolen, her back pulped, her children orphaned, she was not to have an easeful death. No" (39). "BELOVED is my sister. I swallowed her blood right along with my mother’s milk " (242). Sethe needed to leave Sweet Home so she could bring milk to her children, but her milk was stolen. Meanwhile, Halle is up in the loft of the barn, watching, with butter smeared all over his face. Halle never owed anyone milk, but he enjoyed the butter while Sethe never could. Butter is quite literally made from milk (fun fact: you can actually make butter from breastmilk, but they're probably referring to cow milk). Halle got away with "squatting by the churn smearing the butter as well as its clabber all over his face" (83). In this scene, he realizes how helpless and dehumanized Sw