Essay from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Siegen (FB 3: Literatur-, Sprach- und Medienwissenschaften), course: Slave Narratives, language: English, abstract: If I hadnt killed her, she would have died. (119) It is a most horrible scene: A mother killing her own flesh and blood, out of deepest mother-love. Toni Morrisons novel "Beloved" takes this gruesome deed as an approach to illuminate the tortuous and intricate slave mother/child relationship, a bond that in many respects reflects the atrocious nature of slavery. Hence, the essay aims at elucidating the significance and extensive meaning of maternity in Morrisons extraordinary slave narrative.