Amy [Angel] Denver: The White Knight (Blog #4)

The text I chose to read and interpret was the analyzation of Amy Denver by College Literature. This text highlighted the similarities and differences between Amy Denver and Sethe and it is now very apparent how Amy Denver is so different and it makes Amy Denver stand out in a better way compared to Sethe. When we look at the scene when Amy Denver meets Sethe in the forest and Sethe is at her weakest point, we can see the contrast that the reading highlighted after reading the text from College Literature. The contrast they pointed out was how Sethe was dirty and tired and in the middle of labor and Amy Denver showed up and majestically and in an angel-like manor, she aided Sethe and "brought her back to life" after nearly being on the cusp of passing out and possibly dying. The imagery that Toni Morrison has in Beloved during that scene is so powerful and really does paint a picture in your mind that Amy is this indentured servant who turns out to be this almost angel healer that ends up helping Sethe and Sethe repays her by naming her daughter Denver. In this instance, we see how power can be used for good, or for evil with Amy. She is a white woman who found a pregnant black woman in the middle of a forest and during these times, many readers would assume that Amy might turn Sethe in and Amy might use her power as a white person during this time period to exercise her hegemony over Sethe and place Sethe and eventually Denver back into slavery again possibly at Sweet Home. But no, she doesn't do this. Although Amy uses some derogatory words to talk to Sethe, the text by College Literature points out that Amy attempts to re-fix the broken bridge that Sethe has between her and white people in this book. After pointing out the differences in purposes between Amy and Sethe, the text moves on to how the word "Beloved" rings throughout the book. The text by College Literature discovered that "beloved" is constantly used as a noun and verb many times, and that Toni Morrison uses it in a negative and positive way. The negative way she uses it is with baby beloved, which is a baby and later an adult that haunts house 124. This proper noun use of beloved is used to show how the number "3" is missing from 124 because Sethe is missing her third child. College Literature began to explain how beloved as a noun is negative, but as a verb, it is a positive thing that wants to make a change in that world that Sethe lives in. College Literature interpreted Morrison's use of "Beloved" as a verb as the author wanting to amend the damaged relationship between whites and black. College Literature saw the word beloved and took it as be loved, and made the claim that the fact that everyone needs and searches for love and to be loved, that will bring races together. What I took from that scene of Amy and Sethe in the forest was pretty similar to what College Literature found but I noticed one thing, that it seems like throughout Sethe's hardest times, there is always an angel there to help her get through it. For example, with Amy and Sethe, Amy helped Sethe get back to being mobile and helped her deliver her baby. Shortly after, when Sethe needed to cross the river to get to Ohio, there was Stamp Paid and Ella who helped Denver as a newborn and fever ridden Sethe cross a river. After that there was Baby Suggs who was the elderly voice of wisdom that Sethe needed in her life.