House 124 Is Haunted by a Baby in the Novel, Beloved by...

124 was spiteful. A house haunted by the ghost of Sethe’s dead baby, 124 was filled to the roof with memories; hideous memories of their days in slavery. Sethe, who has been free from slavery for eighteen years now, is still bound by her awful memories of it. Her daughter, Denver, was too bound by the past, but Denver’s past never included slavery. Instead, Denver is enslaved by her fear of the world outside of 124 and the loneliness she encounters while at 124. With the help of her mother’s past and their present, Denver eventually looks past 124 and out towards the world, allowing herself to create her own identity. Denver has grown up alone. When she was younger, 124 was filled with people; Baby Suggs, Howard, Buglar, Sethe, and†¦show more content†¦A part of Denver’s immaturity stems from her loneliness, but Denver also shows her immaturity through her self-perception and relationship with Sethe. Throughout the novel, all of the characters have difficulty defining themselves. This destruction of self is due to the physical, emotional, and spiritual wreckage created by slavery. Although never experiencing slavery first hard, Denver has a difficult time defining herself. She constantly defines herself by her relationships. Denver holds Sethe’s past up on a pedestal, having the idea that Sethe’s memories are more valuable than the present; regardless of the fact that Sethe’s past is full of tragedy. The memories that Sethe recounts while with Paul D, Schoolteacher and Sweet Home, are absent of Denver’s presence and prove to be competing with Denver for Sethe’s attention. Because both Sethe and Denver dwell on Sethe’s past so much, Denver feels that she adds no value to Sethe’s memories and â€Å"hates the stories her mother told that did not concern herself.† Denver even wishes she were a part of Sethe’s past that included slavery, regardless of its brutality. The one story of Sethe’s past that involved Denver, the story of Denver’s birth, was not enough to please Denver in comparison to the rest of Sethe’s memories, which Denver believed to be â€Å"a gleaming [and] powerful world made more so by Denver’s absence from it.† To compete with Sethe’s memories for Sethe’sShow MoreRelatedBeloved : A Reconstruction Of Our Past1705 Words   |  7 PagesKarla Ximena Leyte Professor John Crossley Short Close Reading Paper #2 November 20, 2015 Beloved: A reconstruction of our past Beloved by Toni Morrison is a reconstruction of history told by the African American perspective, a perspective that is often shadowed or absent in literature. Her novel presents a cruel demonstration of the horrors endured by slaves and the emotional and psychological effects it created for the African American community. 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