Beloved Q&A

The novel doesn’t provide a precise answer about the fate of Halle, as he was supposed to meet Sethe so that they could escape Sweet Home together, but he never came to their meeting place. Paul D later tells Sethe that he had last seen Halle sitting next to a churn, smearing butter on his face, and he appeared to be insane. Paul D believes that Halle was driven insane because he had to helplessly watch Sethe be mistreated by the nephews of the Schoolteacher.

Sethe escaped from Sweet Home because she could no longer abide by the horrid conditions of life as a slave. Unfortunately, Sethe is tracked down by the Schoolteacher, and he arrives to take her back to the plantation. Sethe could not withstand the idea of her children growing up as slaves, and so decided that it would be better for them to be dead than be slaves. The auto reveals her thoughts in the later sections of the book, and Sethe tells the reader that she had meant to take her children to the other side, where her mother was so that the slave owners could not harm them. Sethe tries to kill all her children, but Beloved is the only one who dies.