A New Family: Sethe’s Acceptance of the Present

A New Family: Sethe’s Acceptance of the Present

Baby Suggs tells Sethe to lay down her defenses against the pain of her memories to be able to move on in life; emotionally moved, Sethe visits Suggs’ favorite “Clearing” in the forest to connect with her spirit. After talking to Baby Suggs, and letting down her defenses to accept her memories, Sethe has a new, positive outlook on what her family, which now includes both Paul D. and Beloved, could become. Sethe’s new use of familial terms to describe Beloved and Denver as “alike as sisters” shows Sethe sees the two as both part of her family, now reconnected. In describing Beloved, Sethe first says she knows “less, nothing” (117). The progression shows Sethe’s realization that she actually knows so little about Beloved. However, moments later, Sethe “now thought she knew why” Denver and Beloved were so close (117). The progression shown in the text from Sethe knowing “nothing” to “now” being able to answer her own questions shows the transition Sethe undergoes to accept Beloved as part of her family. Sethe’s antithetical description of Denver that “years of haunting had dulled her in ways you wouldn’t believe and sharpened her in ways you wouldn’t believe either” (117) shows Sethe can even finally understand her own daughter because she understands and accepts the dichotomous and conflicted nature of Denver’s personality. Sethe decides to “launch” her new life by making dinner for Paul D. as an “offering” (117). The active words “offering” and “launch” imply the effort Sethe has decided she wants put into her family relationship to garner a successful family life. Finally, the change in Sethe’s life because of her acceptance of her new family is plainly visible in the language of colors she uses to describe her planned meal: “potatoes browned on all sides… yellow squash… green onions” (117). Earlier, she refused to see any color as it reminded her of her past, but with her decision to accept Paul D. and try to create a family for herself, she has regained her sense of life’s vibrancy. The progression of colors she describes shows the way her life is going from dark to “green,” which has connotations of new life blooming. As Sethe leaves the liminal Clearing, she returns to 124 a changed person, ready, unlike previously in the novel, to see her life move forward instead of staying caught in the past.