All of the events of the “present day” in Beloved revolve around one particular event. An event, that sparks a controversial decision that is so horrifying that is is difficult for many readers to even say out loud. This event is when the 4 horsemen come to 124, and Sethe makes the decision to kill her children. When reading this part of the book, not only was I shocked about the decision, and how Sethe spoke about it later, I was also shocked that I had read a poem with the exact same premise earlier in the quarter, completely unaware of its significance to Beloved. The poem I read was, “Whose Children Are These,” by Gerald Barax. In “Whose Children Are These,” the speaker comes across children that may or may not be his own, that he is unable to take with him on his escape from slavery. He does not want those children to be subject to slavery themselves, so he is left with the delema of whether or not he should put the children out of their future misery. This poem mentions Margare