“ The one who never looked away, who when a man got stomped to death by a mare . . .did not look away; and when a sow began eating her own litter did not look away then either. And when the baby’s spirit picked up her boy and slammed him into the wall hard enough to break two of his legs and dislocate his eyes, so hard he went into convulsions and chewed up his tongue, still her mother had not looked away. She had taken a hammer, knocked the dog unconscious, wiped away the blood and saliva, pushed his eye back in his head and set his leg bones.”

Beloved, Toni Morrison