Denver and the World

Beloved’s appearance in the novel helps Toni Morrison expose the personalities of the main characters in Beloved. Denver’s life has been defined by its loneliness and sheltering within the family home, so Morrison uses Beloved’s curiosity in Sethe’s life in juxtaposition to reveal Denver’s close-mindedness and selfish tendencies. Morrison shows this dynamic when she writes, “Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver’s absence from it. Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, though there was no chance of that at all. Beloved took every opportunity to ask some funny questions (71).” When Morrison writes “not being in it, [Denver] hated it,” she uses ambiguity to show Denver’s impression of the world. The lack of an antecedent, the lack of a noun to turn back to in order to clarify the sentence, parallels Denver’s inability to understand Beloved’s curiosity because of her lack of prior experience with the world.  When Morrison uses the term “the rest” to describe the stories which were not about Denver, with this ambiguity she implies more broadly that Denver doesn’t want to hear about Sethe’s greater life experience and history. The term “the rest” implies a lack of primary importance or usefulness. The use of “the rest” as a substantive noun can be interpreted in context as Denver’s disinterest in “the rest” of the world, “the rest” of life, and, more personally, the family history. All of this evidence suggests that Denver is still childish and unconcerned for things outside herself. Furthermore, by use of the word “funny,” Morrison uses word choice to show not humor, but the alternative definitions of “funny” as a descriptor of peculiar, freakish, and dubious things. It is ironic Denver regards Beloved’s curiosity as weird when this is how most of the world thinks of 124. This irony shows the sealed off and limited nature of Denver’s experiences. The effects of Denver’s isolation within 124 are evident here through her immaturity and close-mindedness.