“Decided to stop relying on kindness to leave something on the stump. She would hire herself out somewhere, and she was afraid to leave Sethe and Beloved along all day not knowing what calamity either one of them would create, she came to realize that her presence in that house had no influence on what either woman did. She help them alive and they ignore her.” (296, Morrison)
After seeing Beloved “rising back from the dead”, Beloved is continuously, figuratively and literally sucking the life out of Sethe. Sethe was let go from her work because she kept coming in late from playing and entertaining Beloved everyday. Sethe’s remaining youth and beauty, money, and food and water was sucked out and devoured by Beloved. Due to Sethe’s release from work, she was put in a situation where she could no longer support Denver and Beloved. No longer wanting to rely on the charity of other’s for their support and witnessing her mother exhaustion increasing over time from providing Beloved’s needs, Denver ventures out to find some work in exchange for food for her family. Denver was extremely worried about leaving Beloved and Sethe alone together, worried that one may kill the other. After some time, Denver realized that the two women were so caught up with destroying and providing for the other, her presence did not influence the seesaw between them. The two women had eyes on each other for some time, that they completely forgot about Denver’s existence. Denver’s courage to find a job to support her family, especially her mother during an extremely difficult time, is what makes her admirable.
