The Past Affecting Denver's Life

Despite the fact it is impossible for her to connect to it firsthand, Denver continuously tries to connect to her mother’s past through stories. Without these stories, there would be little to no basis of what Denver’s life means. Everything that affects Denver’s life in the present is due to her family’s past. She is the first in her family to be born outside of slavery, even her brothers and sister were born while their mother was still enslaved, but slavery still has a grasp on her life. The most significant event in her mother’s life post slavery, the death of Beloved, occurs because the slave system still held its grasp on her. Despite the fact that she was never a slave, slavery still owns Denver’s life. She is free in the sense that
On her back, she bears a large, tree-like scar that was sustained from when she was whipped. When Paul D asks her about it, she replies “I've never seen it and never will. But that's what (Amy) said it looked like. A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves. Tiny little chokecherry leaves. But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know" (Morrison 31). The tree is a symbol of the fact that Sethe’s history is literally always right behind her, even if she cannot see it. The tree is deep rooted in her skin, she feels like there’s a chance it could have grown as she experienced more pain and hardship, but it remained the same sturdy tree. The affected area of her back no longer has any feeling, but the scars are still always there. When Sethe and Paul D have sex when he first arrives, she feels no sensation when he touches her on her back, and even hides her scars by laying on her back when they actually begin to fornicate. Paul D represents a future that the two may have together, happy and away from slavery, despite the fact that he is a constant reminder to Sethe of Sweet Home. However, when Sethe fails to feel his touch, or hide her scars, it shows that even though she is somewhat numb to the history, it is always there, and Paul D cannot help her escape or ignore it. No matter how much Sethe yearns to move on, her history is a literal part of her body. These
It is not quickly apparent to Sethe that this woman somehow has a connection to her dead daughter, despite the fact that Sethe herself believed her daughter’s sad ghost haunted 124. Despite Sethe not realizing the connection, there were a plethora of clues towards this interpretation of who the woman was. There was a biological connection between both Sethe and the new Beloved, from their very first meeting all the way to the end of the book. When Beloved first arrives, Sethe finds herself with an unending bout of incontinence, which was coupled with the fact that Beloved was drinking water like she had never had a drop of it pass her lips before. This is not the only physical connection the two share. Later on in the novel, Sethe begins to wither away, getting skinnier and skinnier as Beloved gets fatter. It gets to a point where Beloved even almost looks pregnant, which even further reinforces the point that this physical connection they have is a maternal one. Beloved is connected to the world through her mother, without her, she would not exist. This ghost of a woman is the manifestation of the guilt Sethe feels from killing her baby. That guilt had earlier manifested as the spirit within the house, which Paul D scared off when he first arrived. With the departure of the spirit came a more in-your-face symbol of Beloved; an