"Hell was a pretty place too" - Rodrigo Cuevas Kells

“It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too. Fire and brimstone all right, but hidden in lacy groves. Boys hanging from the most beautiful sycamores in the world. It shamed her—remembering the wonderful soughing trees rather than the boys. Try as she might to make it otherwise, the sycamores beat out the children every time and she could not forgive her memory for that.”

― Toni Morrison, Beloved (page 7)

Sethe suffers from PTSD through the events that transpire in the novel and we are able to see cracks into her psyche and get examples of how Sethe’s PTSD affects her personally. There are several instances in the novel to help the arguments claim that Sethe is traumatised by her past. When she tries to remember what her two boys Buglar and Howard were like she cannot recall what they were like. When Sethe does remember about being at Sweet Home she can only focus on the dreadful moments and memories in an indifferent matter showing how she's become numb to human violence. She then unconsciously places mental barriers to not be able to look back at the good times from her past.

Sethe is reminiscing about her and her boys, she wants to remember what her boys were like and Morrison delivers an anecdote about Sethe’s life. The passage then delivers the line,“and suddenly there was Sweet Home.” Then she compares sweet home to hell and how they are both similar. Sethe believes that if sweet home did not look as bad as the events that happened then then maybe hell doesn't look as bad as everyone makes it out out to be. Typically when people talk about hell it's about damning someone to it expressing how it's an extremely unwanted. The general image of hell is high flames, people suffering and eternal damnation, but according to Sethe it probably looks prettier than the events that can happen there. This is a small glimpse into Sethe’s psyche as we get to see that even though she considers Sweet Home to be hellish she wouldn't call the scenery hellish as well. 

Sethe is conflicted with her thoughts of Sweet Home and her boys. She remembers when people were hung from a tree there and remembers the type of tree instead of the personalities and traits of her children. Her brain is wired to have her remember traumatic moments in her life. It's a form of PTSD that war veterans have where they relive the horrors of war sometimes and it affects them in a negative way. Some people have certain ways of coping with PTSD, some focus on beautiful aspects of something that pushes the traumatic event into obscurity. Sethe subconsciously chooses to forget her children and the truth is she even relates that back to baby suggs when she can't remember her’s either. Sethe explains to Suggs that her anecdote of the one child is, “all you let yourself remember," Sethe had told her.” Sethe exhibits this herself as she states that the trees beat out her children any day. Even though Sethe is physically free of her slave ridden past, she is still mentally chained up by the past at the same time. Her mind is still chained by having her memories affect her subconscious, she can't remember her kids because she doesn't let herself, she’d rather focus on horror she does want to remind herself. She doesn't want to forget the type of past that she had at Sweet Home because she doesn't feel like she’s free. When she was a slave back at Sweet Home where some of the most dehumanizing things happened to her, and she can't let herself forget that feeling, even if she doesn't want to. Even if Sethe wishes to become free and live her life to the fullest with her daughter, her troubled past continues to haunt her in her current living situation.