Denver And Sethe Character Analysis

Generally speaking, the main reason as to why the woman of the community decided to provide help to Denver and Sethe is specifically due to the fact that Denver had asked. As seen during a conversation between Stamp Paid and Ella regarding the displacement of Paul D, the mentality of the community is that if someone needs help, they need to ask in order to receive—to expect assistance without asking makes one too proud. Specifically, this can be seen when Ella states, “Can’t nobody read minds long distance. All he have to do is ask somebody” (Morrison 219), again showing that one must swallow their pride and admit they need help in order to receive it. Due to the fact that Denver was desperate enough to reach out to Lady Jones and Janey for …show more content…
Furthermore, the women of the community also accepted the fact that Sethe was just like them—a mother, a woman, and a freed slave—and chose to rally together due to the fact that they were just like her. Consequently, this coming together represents that the women of the community did not dislike Sethe because of what she did, but rather because of the way she behaved following her crime. As stated in the novel, women such as Ella in the community, “understood Sethe’s rage in the shed twenty years ago, but not her reaction to it” (Morrison 301-302), showing that the community did not hate Sethe because she murdered her child. Instead, the community rejected her due to the fact that she rejected them by, “[making] no gesture toward anybody, and [living] as though she were alone” (Morrison 302). Therefore, the rallying of the women symbolizes that Sethe was only alone because that was what she chose for herself—she certainly didn’t have to be, for the community understood why she took the actions she did. Furthermore, the fact that only