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- Overall Summary One of the most common reader responses to is speechlessness. Readers attempt to deal with that speechlessness by trying to determine whether Sethe's attempt to kill her children was morally justified or not. These almost always seem like stilt ....

Middle of Essay
.... of punishment for slaves was gagging with an iron bit. Sethe's own mother was forced to wear the bit so often that she has a permanent smile frozen on her face. Robbing the slave of the power of speech is a powerful way to make him or her feel like a beast. Paul D feels even less than the rooster that struts around him as he sits, mute and chained. Baby Suggs recognizes the importance of speech. She often tells her parishioners to love their mouths. Throughout , speechlessness defines the former slave's reaction to her and her past. For Sethe, the past is an unhealed wound that haunts her like the ghost of her dead daughter. Her daughter, Denver, ....