Examples Of Sacrifice In Beloved

James Good

Mr. Young

English 11

17 March 2023

Sacrifice and Personal Growth in Beloved

When the reader first meets Denver, she is trying to communicate with the ghost of the baby that her mother killed, while Sethe reminisces about her children and notes that Denver is the only one left. Later, after Beloved has returned, Sethe begins to distance herself from Denver, becoming obsessive in her care of and attendance to Beloved. Without enough to eat, Denver actively allows her family to have her portions, which causes her well-being to decline rapidly. Thesis: Denver’s inherent fear of Sethe leads to her developing self-sacrificial tendencies and a mature sense of responsibility in order to protect her family at the expense of her life and

While she is stated to be eighteen when the book starts, her actions, much like Beloved later, convey a sense of her still being a child and remaining bound to her mother, enjoying the story of her birth and feeling slighted when Beloved only desires to be with Sethe and not her. Denver and her mother have been in virtual isolation following Sethe’s murder of Beloved and attempted murder of her three other children, which, along with the departure of her brothers and the death of her grandmother at some point before the story began, has left Denver with no company, save her mother and the ghost of her sister. Morrison described Denver as “lonely … since there were no children willing to circle her in a game or hand by their knees from her porch railing” (Morrison, 1987, p. 6). However, Denver seems to withdraw from her mother and any company she might have, most notably Paul D, opting to search for a sign from her deceased sister in order to stave off her feelings of “loneliness” that “wore her out” (Morrison, 1987, p. 14), being so sensitive to the ghost’s presence that she could discern the ghost’s footsteps as she went up the stairs, and being so entrenched in her isolation that it made “Denver long … for a sign of spite from the baby ghost” (Morrison, 1987, p.

This has caused her to develop a profound fear of her own mother, which comes into conflict with her previously established positive relationship with her as one of the few points of human contact she has left. Denver claims that “I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I’m scared of her because of it” (Morrison, 1987, p. 102). This intrinsic fear of her mother, while revealed near the end of the novel, clearly manifests in Denver’s antisocial behavior and stunted emotional development, as well as her aversion to outsiders, such as Paul D, getting too close to her mother, not only for her own sake but for the sake of the outside parties not aggravating the murderous capacity she knows her mother to