Beloved

     I'll be honest, I really can't stand Beloved. The book seemed to lack meaning; literal meaning, metaphorical meaning. Until the last few pages I couldn't understand what the book was about if it wasn't about slavery. If it wasn't about slavery it seemed a worthless narrative that really doesn't deserve any of the literary merits it has received.
But then there were these words...

... worse than that - far worse - was what Baby Suggs died of, what Ella knew, what Stamp saw and what made Paul D tremble. That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn't think it up.

(Morrison, 295)

     BANG. 
     Realization and clarity exploded in my mind. The story wasn't written as a cry against slavery but humanity. Humanities view or sin and humanities value (or lack of value) on human life.
For much of the book the reader is set against Sethe. She is not liked, she is not loved, and she is most certainly not viewed as a hero. But, what makes the crimes Sethe committed against her daughter worse than the lynchings Schoolteacher dealt out? The rapes white men performed on black women because, god forbid, they be attracted to a black woman? Is it really worse than the complete alienation of an entire race?
     Where Sethe came from there was no punishment for a white man murdering a black man. Yet Sethe's murdering Beloved was considered heinous, unforgivable, the worst form of violence existent on Earth.
     Perhaps the books message was to say that we label certain things incorrectly. Murderers are worse than thieves. Embezzlers are better than kidnappers. White men are more justified in there crimes then black men. Every sin has a weight placed upon it by opinions. But then, why is Batman crowned a hero if he was a murderer first?
     I don't think that any of these crimes are good, and I still don't care for Sethe, but I do agree with her thoughts. No one should have the ability to make another inferior. No one should have the ability to judge another's vices as immoral when they themselves have also messed up. No one should have the ability to demoralize and ostracize an entire race. What makes Sethe's crime so much worse than those depicted in the book's many flashbacks?
     Is it worse?