Belove Analysis

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her
neighbors, already upset at her crime, isolated her because she seemed to feel no remorse
for the awful deed. Sethe's stoic resolve continues until Denver loses her hearing, which
was caused by Denver not being able to deal with hearing what her mother had done.
Only when her mother's conscience manifests itself as the ghost of the baby does
Denver's hearing return.
Denver, having as a child suckled her sister's blood with her mother's milk,
attaches herself to this ghost, the manifestation of her mother's guilt. She makes friends
with it, because due to her mother's heinous deed, she will have no other friends in the
community. Denver must make peace with what her mother did in order for her to
survive, and she accomplishes this by making the ghost her playmate. In their own little
world, both Denver and her mother acclimate themselves to the sin that they must live
with.
The appearance of Paul D throws everything into turmoil. To Sethe, Paul D is a
man that knows what ...

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a new way to make her suffer for what she did. So, as
life begins to get better for Sethe and Denver again because of Paul D, Beloved shows
up, and when she gains some strength she promptly begins to move Paul D out of the
house, systematically further and further away from Sethe. This is consistent with the
masochistic pattern exhibited by Sethe's conscience, because Paul D is the only
individual who shows potential (at this stage in the plot) of helping Sethe overcome her
past. In his absence her guilt could punish her more effectively, and so Paul D ends up
sleeping in the shed, with Beloved visiting him at night to make him very uncomfortable.
When he tries to control his own destiny ...

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