ponse to those interactions with others. This definition is continually growing and progressing as we evolve as people, interacting with different people in different environments and situations. A person acquires a healthy sense of self when, through the process, he or she defines who he or she is in response to, but independent of, those other people. An unhealthy sense of self, however, occurs when, during that process of discovery, one establishes his or her own identity on the basis of, rather than in response to, other people. One's sense of self, then, becomes dependent on other people. Either way, who we are and how we define ourselves is based on our interactions and relationships with other people.
             The idea of how we define ourselves is a topic that has much force in the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison. Two of the characters in the novel have strongly opposite ideas of defining their own "selves". Baby Suggs displays a very healthy sense of self, completely based on only who she is as a person, and not relying on any other person to assist her in her definition. She is an independent person and loves her own "self" greatly. Sethe, on the other hand, has an unhealthy sense of self because who she is is strongly dependent on her interactions and relationships with her children.
             Sethe's sense of self, along with the majority of those in the African slave community, was strongly influenced by the family unit. African people shipped off to America from Africa were constantly being separated. They ended up alone or with other Africans who may have looked like them, but spoke an entirely different language. There was no way for a slave to interact or relate to anyone if he or she was not a family member. Family was crucial to the African identity, providing the only sense of where one's roots were and where he or she came from. To identify with where you come from is par...