Since the communities hold the characters back from realizing their full potential and worth, it is only a matter of time before the ghost makes its appearance. It is at this point that time goes out of joint for Denver, and she becomes paralyzed, unable to properly analyze past, present, or future and unable to make the right choices in the present. Denver completely avoids her past. As Morrison relates, Denver despises any story her mother-Sethe 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. In fact, the appearance of Beloved’s incorporeal specter insulates Denver, and when she is not active, Denver longs “for a sign of spite from the baby ghost”. Focusing much of her love and attention on the ghost, Denver refuses to hear about the past and time becomes out of joint [13]. In fact, when a classmate reveals a part of her past, Denver goes deaf, completely retreating from the world around her. Consequently, Denver cannot decipher the actions of anyone around her—neither her mother’s nor the community’s. Thus, Paul D’s arrival immobilizes Denver, for he takes away the two things she does understand: her mother’s attention and Beloved’s incorporeal presence. While this nonphysical ghost only invisibly and angrily strikes out at the household, Denver views it as her only company and is miserable once it disappears. She retreats to her secret boxwood bower where, closed off from the hurt of the world, Denver’s imagination produced its own hunger and its own food which she badly needed because loneliness wore her out. Without Sethe’s undivided attention and the presence of Beloved’s ghost, Denver becomes numb. She feels she has no protection left from the condemnation Negroes heaped on Sethe and Denver, and her world becomes flat. For Denver, her only solace is retreating into her secret bower, hence further into her loneliness and despair. The appearance of Beloved’s corporeal manifestations furthers Denver’s displaced time. Denver’s emotions swing and she becomes manically ecstatic with Beloved and in Beloved’s presence. In fact, she fluctuates between this mania and fear, terrified that Beloved will disappear again. With time out of joint, Denver also cannot properly analyze her past and takes the wrong action. When a corporeal manifestation of Beloved returns and tries to choke Sethe, Denver turns her head. While she finds Beloved’s action troubling, it is far more horrifying to think of losing Beloved again. Instead of protecting her mother, Denver only sits by and watches. Thus, Denver permits a new injustice to occur.
3.2.2.1.2 Denver’s back to the community through ghostly guidance
Time out of joint, in conjunction with hegemonic oppression, completely paralyzes Denver. Relegated to outsider status, the girl has no avenue for righting present, much less past injustice. Furthermore, without the ghosts, the girl succumbs to hegemonic oppression, unable to navigate the communities from which she is isolated and unable to progress. Consequently, it is magical realism, or the ghosts, that form the bridge between the girl and community. Through ghostly guidance, Denver finally becomes a part of a community.
Denver feels an immediate comfort and affinity for Beloved when Beloved’s ghost appears. As soon as she hears Beloved’s name, she was shaking. She looked at this sleeping beauty and wanted more. Denver instantly develops a purpose, something she had lacked before. She diligently administers to the ailing Beloved, giving both new lives. Denver even develops a passion, something long eradicated from her being before Beloved’s emergence. Unlike the previous works, however, the guidance Denver receives from Beloved is inadvertent. Beloved does not intentionally help Denver, but rather it is her selfish actions that provide guidance. At first, of course, Denver is enthralled with Beloved. However, once Sethe sees Beloved’s scar under her chin and realizes she is her daughter, Denver is completely cut out. She is no longer included in the games they play, and even the song that her mother used to sing to herself was sang for Beloved alone. It is not until Beloved has almost completely sucked the life of Sethe that Denver finally wakes up. Furthermore, Denver is faced with a choice: Sethe or Beloved, for it is obvious that only one can survive. Through Beloved’s possessiveness, Denver is forced out into her community. Visiting her former school teacher, Miss Lady Jones, she asks for help. With this step, the readers also see Denver’s integration into her community. Neighbors begin leaving baskets of food for the family. Where before they had cut her family out, now they begin caring whether she ate and taking pleasure in her soft thank you. They respect the fact that Denver stepped out the door, asked for the help she needed and wanted work. In forcing Denver out into the world, Beloved paves the way for her acceptance into the community. Furthermore, Denver’s actions also pull the community together, and they rally around both Denver and Sethe. Recognizing Beloved’s presence as an invasion, the women come together at the family’s home, driving Beloved away. Here, Denver takes charge. Sethe, believing a local man is the slave master coming to take Beloved away, attacks him with an ice pick. Denver is the first one to wrestle her mother down. Through her selfless actions, not only does Denver become a part of the community that shunned her, but also Beloved disappears forever.
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