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Sabrina Akbar

Ms. O’Keefe

AP Literature

March 25, 2019

Perspectives on Beloved

During Fidel Castro’s communist regime in Cuba, my maternal grandparents dangerously

and illegally escaped the country, understanding they could never return during the regime or
risked being killed. They left their families behind, not knowing when they would ever see them
again. During the Indo-Pakistani war in Pakistan, my paternal grandparents fled home in search
of a safer one in the United States. My aunts still remember the times the family hid in the bomb
shelter as explosives struck their neighborhood, patiently waiting for the sharp ringing sounds to
end. Cuba, 1961 and Pakistan, 1972. These are the years that my grandparents left their
homelands in trust of the American Dream and a better future for their children. My ancestry
hails from opposite sides of the world because of this sacrifice that allowed my parents to meet
many years later. Today, I ask my parents if they could imagine sacrificing family, friends, and a
home just as my grandparents did for them decades ago. They both individually and equally
reply that they could never understand the struggles of such sacrifice unless they had to
experience it themselves.

The stories of my grandparents are remarkable and honorable, except their stories do not
include sacrificing their children, but instead their countries. Although they left their home
countries in states of corrupt and unstable governments, they had the choice to willingly leave in
search of a future full of life, liberty, and happiness. They were not perceived as refugees or held
captive and physically striped of their human rights. Most importantly, there were no lives that
were sacrificed for a safer future. Is this a different kind of sacrifice? A more acceptable one?

But what is a sacrifice? How can a parent possibly sacrifice the life of their child with the
false hope of a better future? This almost universal sacrifice that a parent undertakes for their
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child is an intriguing conversation. From the beginning of our history in small nomadic
communities to rising civilizations, humans have come together and learned to share and give up
privileges, all in hope for a better future. In all walks of life, sacrifice has been an indication of
the immense care human beings have for each other and their beliefs. Some ancient sacrifices
were deemed immoral and inhumane, while other sacrifices have been more understood and
accepted within society. But what constitutes moral sacrifice and immoral sacrifice? Is it society
as a whole or only those who can testify to the experiences of sacrifice that are aloud to voice an
opinion? Despite these inquiries, any parent who has sacrificed something for their child has a
reason to explain why it was done. The effects of trauma, the fear of losing freedom, or the
desire for a safe and healthy future may be explanations to understand the complexities and
struggles of parenthood, when sacrificing life seems to be the only way to survive.

In Ohio of 1856, a time when slavery in the United States still existed as a legal act of
oppression against African Americans, a tragic murder case revealed the indescribable struggle
of a slave’s life. A young mother, by the name of Margaret Garner, had been considered a
fugitive runaway under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Fleeing from Kentucky to Ohio, Garner
stayed with a freed cousin until she was found by her slaveholder who desired to recapture her.
In a swift moment of panic, instinct, and sacrifice, Garner took the life of her two year old
daughter to prevent her from the horrors of the same slavery she had escaped from. Her case
prompted numerous media outlets to create propaganda that further dehumanized African
Americans for their supposed “ barbarity” and supported an agenda to keep slavery in the U.S. In
spite of this, Garner’s story opened up a new discussion amongst abolitionists that argued against
the brutality of slavery. Was life worth living if it only meant surviving each day in slavery? Is
the resolve to die rather than to submit to a life of degradation and bondage? In Toni Morrison’s
1987 novel titled ​Beloved,​ which is dedicated to Margaret Garner’s case, a story of parental
sacrifice is retold in a magnificent and philosophical manner. [4] The main protagonist, Sethe,
and her ghostly daughter Beloved represent a unique relationship between mother and child as
they tell a story of immense love, pain, and guilt. For mothers like Sethe or Garner who
experienced the traumas of slavery, the murders of their children can only ever to be perceived as
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motherly protection, not malicious intent. It is the belief that there is hope after death that
prompts humans to take such drastic measures of sacrifice.

Nonetheless, the acts these mothers committed were gruesome and appalling. The idea of
deviance, understood to be any act that defies social norms and upsets a majority of society is
largely influenced by the perspectives of that society. Sacrifice can be considered an act of
deviance depending on which perspectives in society deem it acceptable or not. Howard S.
Becker once said, “it is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act, that makes something
deviant.” [1] Therefore, what may be deviant to one society or group may not be to another. But
the murder of an innocent child reaches the limits of justifiable sacrifice. As stated in ​Beloved​,
humans “walk on two legs, not four.” [4] So I ask again, what constituents immoral and moral
sacrifice, and who gets to decide?

During desperate times when humans feel they are in the most danger, they may commit
acts of deviance. For those who have not experienced the same trauma, these acts may be
misunderstood and misinterpreted. The 2015 Netflix film, ​Room,​ is a story inspired by the
horrendous case of Ariel Castro and the three brave women he imprisoned for ten years. [5]
Following the main character Joy, the movie displays a sacrifice of a young woman’s son in
order to escape a prison shed where she has been kept for seven years. Relying on the hope of
survival, the sacrifice of her innocent five year old son is a risk worth taking in order to receive a
safer and better future. This reiterated concept of parental sacrifice transcends across different
races, beliefs, countries, and cultures. Similarly, hundreds of immigrants and refugees have
countless stories that may be considered the same sacrifice. Refugees who flee war-stricken
countries in small makeshift rafts with nothing but the clothes on their back and a small bag of
belongings, if they are lucky, have experienced the strong forces of human survival that many
people cannot attest to. To look at these disturbing experiences from a different approach fuels
an understanding of humanity and sacrifice. As quoted in Omid Safi’s ​Love in a Time of
Refugees​, “you have to understand that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is
safer than the land.” [6] And in the wake of the recent New Zealand Mosque terrorist attacks,
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Naeem Rashid died a martyr while trying to save his son and others inside the mosque before
being gunned down. In a moment of bravery, he had sacrificed his own life. According to The
Washington Post, “[Rashid] was a brave man who died to save others. His death showed how he
cared for humanity,” Rashid’s brother Khurshid Alam said in a telephone interview Sunday from
his home in Abbottabad, Pakistan. [3]

So possibly, those who can emotionally understand the human experience and return
compassion to those who have sacrificed life in times of trauma, have undeniably broken the
barriers of social judgement. The question no longer becomes whether one ​has​ to experience
sacrifice to understand the decision, but instead the question becomes how compassionate and
empathetic you can be to understand that every loving parent sacrifices survival so that their
child can live.

When I asked my own parents to retell the stories of my grandparent’s immigration to the
United States so I could open an understanding of sacrifice for this work, I did not know I would
become so emotional about my family’s history. I was never able to ask my grandparents how
they felt about leaving the countries they had always called home because they knew it was not
safe for their children. I never received the opportunity to thank them for what they did because I
would not exist today if they hadn't. More than anything, I felt horrible for not knowing more
about their stories of sacrifice that deserved to be understood by all of humanity. Sacrificing
something for yourself is one thing, but sacrificing things for someone else reveals a
consciousness that makes us human. The sacrifice that Margaret Garner committed is beyond my
comprehension, not my compassion. “Her sorrow was beyond the reach of any words of
encouragement and consolation, and can only be realized in all its fullness only by those who
have tasted a cup equally bitter.” [2] So I realized that I can never taste the cup that Garner,
Sethe, Joy, Naeem Rashid, and millions of refugees, immigrants, and slaves have tasted. I cannot
feel the pain of sacrificing your own child because I am not a mother. I cannot confirm the
constant fear of death because I have the privilege to live beyond survival. What I can do, is
harvest a seed of compassion every time I read a story about human sacrifice in this cruel world.
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When I teach those around me that perspectives in society is the answer to all questions, and that
there is importance to understanding the human experience, I can honor these people. For
sacrifice unmasks heroes who care more about something bigger than themselves.
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Works Cited

Becker, Howard S. ​Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. ​London, Free Press of
Glencoe. 1963

Coffin, Levi. ​Margaret Garner: Defying the Fugitive Slave Act. 1880.

Hussain, Shaiq, and Pamela Constable. “Pakistani Man Who Tried to Stop New Zealand
Shooter to Be given National Award.” ​The Washington Post,​ WP Company, 17 Mar.
2019,
www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistani-man-who-tried-to-stop-new-zeala
nd-shooter-to-be-given-national-award/2019/03/17/582667fa-48af-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c
21e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d80180a3b7e8​.

Morrison, Toni. ​Beloved.​ Knopf, Alfred A. 1987

Room​. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Produced by Ed Guiney and David Gross. Netflix,
2015.

Safi, Omid. ​Love in a Time of Refugees.​ The On being Project, OBP. 24, Sept. 2015,
https://onbeing.org/blog/love-in-a-time-of-refugees/