Tony Morrison’s “Beloved” deals with the hardships of slavery in post-Civil War America-but does this through the interactions of its characters and Beloved, a baby ghost come back to haunt the community and who, by representing the past, affects everyone’s lives. One of the characters that Beloved affects is Denver, her sister. In “Beloved” Denver’s progression through her interaction with Beloved and her eventual realization of the harmful nature of the past cause her to leave the confines of 124 and become the manifestation of the future.
Originally, Denver seeks to find a connection to a past that she doesn’t have, and obtains this connection through the spirit of the baby ghost. When we are first introduced to Denver, she is living with her mother, Sethe, and the spirit of the baby ghost in 124. The lack of companionship, the abandonment of her brothers and the death of Baby Suggs cause Denver to feel, “lonely” (14). This solitude, in addition to her own mother’s absent mind-ness of her, causes Denver to create companionship with the baby ghost, to the point where she “long[s], downright long[s], for a sign…from the baby ghost” (15).
In addition, Denver’s lack of a past cause her to be excluded when Paul D comes to talk to Sethe, about Sweet Home; Denver cannot connect to it because she was not a part of it. This causes her to wish for a connection to the past, a connection she obtains through the baby ghost. “She wished for the baby ghost-its anger thrilling her now where it used to wear her out. Wear her out” (15), this wanting to be a part of the past causes Denver to blurt out “we have a ghost in here” (15) which instantly brings her mother and Paul D out of the past and forces them to join Denver again. Later, when the ghost acts upon the house, Paul D chases it away, Denver is left alone and “miserable” (23). However, Denver would soon find a new way to achieve a connection to the past that she craves, a connection that would later change her.
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When Beloved returns to 124 as the manifestation of the past, Denver sees the opportunity to receive the connection to the past that she craves, and through nurturing Beloved to health, obtains this connection. Upon Beloved’s return to 124 she is extremely weak, in need of help, and Denver is the one who takes up nursing Beloved back to health, “So intent was her nursing, she forgot to eat of visit the emerald closet.” (64). Denver’s devotion to helping Beloved brings light on Denver’s need for a connection to the past. Her desire to have this connection is so strong that Denver doesn’t eat-representing that the past is more important than life, and more important than anything in the present.
Denver is so devoted to taking care of Beloved, that she becomes extremely protective of her, even against Sethe, for when Sethe asks of Beloved’s condition Denver’s replies are short and to the point, resulting in “Leave us alone, Ma’am. I’m taking care of her” (65). Denver’s overly-protective sentiments towards Beloved exemplify her needs for the past. Later, once Beloved is feeling better, Denver gets the opportunity she desires, to have Beloved for herself when beloved chokes and Denver invites her to sleep in her room. “Come to my room…I can watch out for you up there”” (79), thus, Denver gets Beloved to herself, so that she may forge a connection to the past that she so desires. Now she is able to “have their talks…at night…Sweet crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams, and misunderstandings more thrilling than understandings could ever be.” (80).
However, once Denver realizes that Beloved is the manifestation of the baby-ghost, she begs Beloved, “Don’t tell her. Don’t let ma’am know who you are. Please, you hear?”” (89), in an attempt to keep Beloved safe from the deed that Sethe had committed before, and to keep Beloved to herself. However, Beloved tells Denver that, “She [Sethe] is the one. She is the one I need. You can go, but she is the one I have to have” (89). This causes Denver to realize that she cannot keep Beloved away from Sethe forever. Denver then tells the story of her own birth, the story that is the one connection that she has to a past outside of 124.
“She swallowed twice to prepare for the telling, to construct out of the strings she had heard all of her life a net to hold Beloved” (90), and through this story, Denver tries to hold onto Beloved for as long as possible, and the two become “a duet as they lay down together, Denver nursing Beloved’s interest like a lover whose pleasure was to overfeed the loved” (92). This forces Denver to be a “strategist now [who] has to keep Beloved by her side” (142). This interaction between them, although not deterring Denver from wanting to be with Beloved, causes her to understand that although she has a connection to the past through Beloved, she will never be able to link to a full past because she does not have one outside of 124.
However, as Beloved feeds more and more off of Sethe, Denver realizes the harmful nature of the past through Beloved, and begins to separate from it. When the three (Sethe, Denver, and Beloved) go to the clearing where Baby Suggs used to “preach”, Beloved chokes Sethe, and only Denver notices, “You made her choke…you told me you loved her…you chocked her neck” (119). This causes Denver to further question “if, indeed, she had been wrong” (119) about Beloved, and Beloved is indeed not as safe and great as she though. Later, when Beloved is feeding off of Sethe, Denver begins to realize the true destroying powers of Beloved.
Once Beloved and Sethe begin to argue about Sethe’s betrayal, Sethe fawns nonstop over Beloved, who only consumes Sethe, leaving all three with no food. Denver is surprised that hunger could, “quiet you down and wear you out. Neither Sethe nor Beloved knew or cared about it” (281). This leaves Denver to take care of both of them, although she sees that her mother’s “forefinger and thumb was thin as china silk and there wasn’t a piece of clothing that didn’t sag on her” (281). Contrasted to the “plump and big” (281) Beloved, Sethe is giving Beloved everything she has, and Denver is slowly seeing the change between the two.
Slowly, Beloved takes everything in the house, from “the best chair, the biggest piece, the prettiest plate, the brightest ribbon” (284) and no one stops her, and she is allowed to be rampant throughout 124. However, the true realization of Beloved’s evil nature comes when Denver sees Sethe “spit up something she had not eaten and it rocked Denver like gunshot. The job she started out with, protecting Beloved from Sethe, changed to protecting her mother from Beloved” (286). This is the turning realization for Denver because she now fully realizes the evil that Beloved brings to 124, and how consuming the past can be. This realization forces Denver to think about whom she can turn to, and force her to take matters into her own hands, and move past Beloved into the present, and the future.
As Denver moves away from the past and the life inside 124, she becomes the manifestation of the future through her interactions with the community and as such she is able to begin a new life with plans for the future. Upon realizing the evil in Beloved’s nature, Denver is forced to think about who she can turn to for help, for “who could she stand in front of who wouldn’t shame her” (286), and although she is reluctant, her situation forces her to leave 124 and seek the help of Lady Jones. Once there Denver tells the full story of her life in 124- creating her own past and sharing it to the community, she tells Lady Jones that she needs “Food. My ma’am, she doesn’t feel good.” (292). This newfound past that she creates for herself now separates Denver from a need for Beloved, and in turn “inaugurates her transition into a woman” (292).
As Denver receives the help of the community, and in turn receives the connection to the past that she desires through them, “her outside life improved, [as] her home life deteriorated” (294). This signifies a change in Denver, who no longer relies and is in fact drifting from 124- and the past, and is instead moving onwards into the future as part of the community. Denver’s interaction with the community, and her sharing of the story of 124 causes the community to rile up in her favor, and to chase out Beloved- for they all know the grief that the past can cause. However, upon reaching 124, they see not Denver sitting on the steps, “but themselves. Younger, stronger, even as little girls lying in the grass asleep” (304), and this marks the purpose of Denver in the story, as the manifestation of the future for all of the community, for although they see themselves when looking at Denver, they see that she is ready to press onwards with her life, and not be brought down by the past.
This maturity and representation of the future is evident after Beloved is gone, and Paul D and Denver cross paths on the road. The interaction between the two, starting with “Good Morning, Mr. D” (313) signifies Denver’s change into an adult with plans “to go to Oberlin” (313). Thus Denver has fully dropped the past and is able to move into the future. Through her interactions with the community, she is able to create her own past to leave 124 behind, and proceed with her own life.
Tony Morrison’s portrayal of Denver as the representation of the future is made evident as Denver progresses through the book. Although she originally starts with a desire to have a connection to the past, a desire that is present throughout the novel, her ways of achieving that connection shift. Originally she finds the connection through the baby-ghost, and later Beloved. However, as she realizes she has no past, and the nature of Beloved’s evil, she creates her own through her interactions with the community, and is able to become the representation of the future. Denver becomes the symbol of the future, and in turn provides hope for the future for Sethe, Paul D, and the community.
