Sethe and Denver

            Denver and Sethe are in very different situations at the end of Beloved than they were at the beginning. From the beginning of the novel, Sethe is described as quietly strong and a fiercely loving mother. Paul D says that she has “iron eyes and a backbone to match”, and Denver describes her mother as “the one who never looked away” no matter what happened. However, despite her seemingly endless strength, Sethe is constantly haunted by her past, both in the form of sudden rememories that drag her back to Sweethome and the ghost of her dead daughter. To Sethe, “the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay.” (51)

            Denver, though 18 years old, seems like a much younger child. She is isolated by her family’s past, afraid to leave the yard, and incredibly lonely. It seems like she is very attached to Sethe, but we learn later that she is actually terrified of her mother. Since she was very young, the ghost of her sister has been Denver’s only friend.

            By the end of the novel, these two characters’ roles have dramatically changed. Denver is thriving, and much more independent. She works and supports Sethe, has friends outside of her family, and talks to both Paul D and Nelson Lord, two people whom she had previously disliked, and who had caused her trauma.

            Sethe, on the other hand, seems to have retreated into herself. When Paul D comes to see her,

To the right of him, where the door to the keeping room is ajar he hears humming . . . Of course, he thinks. That’s where she is—and she is. Lying under a quilt of merry colors. Her hair, like the dark delicate roots of good plants, spreads and curves on the pillow. Her eyes, fixed on the window, are so expressionless he is not sure she will know who he is . . . “You got to get up from here, girl.” He is nervous. This reminds him of something. “I’m tired, Paul D. So tired. I have to rest a while.” Now he knows what he is reminded of and he shouts at her, “Don’t you die on me! This is Baby Suggs’ bed! Is that what you planning?” (319-20)

So why did these changes occur? The obvious answer is Beloved: the harm she caused Sethe through her refusal or inability to understand Sethe is what causes Sethe’s decline, and her and Sethe’s all-consuming attention for each other forced Denver out into the world. However, I think there’s more to it than that. As noticed by Paul D, Sethe at the end of the novel is acting almost exactly how Baby Suggs did near the end of her life. Both Sethe and Baby Suggs were born and grew up slaves, and though they escaped or were bought into freedom, they both lost their children as a result of slavery. Both survive this, but are deeply hurt and for both of them, Beloved is in some way the straw that broke the camel’s back. Baby Suggs, though she doesn’t judge Sethe, retreats to her bed to reflect on “harmless” colors after Sethe kills her young daughter. Sethe at the time sees her killing of her daughter as an act of protection and love, but when Beloved leaves her at the end of the novel without understanding or accepting what had happened in the shed, Sethe too can no longer go on.

Denver is not affected in this way by Beloved at all. Unlike her mother and grandmother, she was born not into slavery, but as her mother crossed into freedom. If we interpret Beloved’s haunting as a physical representation of the idea that nothing ever dies and how Sethe is never able to leave her past behind her, it makes sense that Denver is not at all affected. She represents the later generations who are not haunted by Sweethome. After all, repeated three times in the last chapter are variations on the words, “it was not a story to pass on” (323).