3rd Outside Blog Reading Post

"Denver sat down on the bottom step. There was nowhere else gracefully to go. They were a twosome, saying "Your daddy" and "Sweet Home" in a way that made it clear both belonged to them and not to her. That her own father's absence was not hers. Once the absence had belonged to Grandma Baby- a son, deeply mourned because he was the one who had bought her out of there. Then it was her mother's absent husband. Now it was this hazlenut stranger's absent friend. Only those you knew him ("knew him well") could claim his absence for themselves. Just as only those who lived in Sweet Home could remember it, whisper and glance sideways at one another while they did. Again she wished for the baby ghost- its anger thrilling her now where it used to wear her out. Wear her out."
- Beloved by Toni Morrison, found on page 15

Denver is a very intense character, and this passage shows it. The author chose the name "Denver" to indirectly characterize her cold exterior and interior. Another intersering word choice is the name of the farm- Sweet Home. This name is ironic, since all of the memories from Sweet Home are not sweet in the least, even though they look back on those memories constantly. The author uses short and aggravated syntax ("knew him well," "Wear her out," etc.) to show the reader how the characrter in this passage (Denver) uses bad memories of the past to reassure herself that the future will be more promising. Once you hit rock bottom, there's no going back down, or so she thought.