Beloved and the Ties of Community

     In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, community, and the lack thereof, play a significant role in the events of the story. Among freed slaves, community can be a fleeting and precious thing, seen first chronologically in the gathering at Baby Suggs celebrating Sethe and her children. While Baby Suggs initially intended for the gathering to be simply a celebratory matter, Stamp Paid gives it an almost religious meaning. Yet, in his and Baby Suggs’ acts of trying to bring together the community, they are rejected by their jealous neighbors. They are upset due to the things Baby Suggs never had to endure, for the fact that she was given this life while they had had to claim it for themselves. “It made them furious. They swallowed the baking soda, the morning after, to calm the stomach violence caused by the bounty, the reckless generosity on display at 124. Whispered to eachother about fat rats, doom, and uncalled for pride,” (Beloved 162). Although this anger was not Baby Suggs’ fault, the town abandons the family and tragedy ensues. Most likely out of spite, Sethe is not warned about Schoolteacher coming to town and her family suffers for it. In a time and place where banding together is essential for survival, the community members heartlessly abandon Sethe and she is left to pay for their offense. 

While Sethe was the primary victim of a lack of community in the town, the town members suffered as well. Some, such as Stamp Paid, fell into regret and pity. Even though the many of the other townspeople’s lives were not seen in the book, 124 Bluestone Road underwent a stark difference: from a place of life and hope in Baby Suggs’ time, to one of loneliness and abandon which could be reflective of the townspeople’s lives after the loss a place once sacred and safe.

Finally, the power of community is truly realized at the ending of the book, when the women band together to banish Beloved from 124 Bluestone Road. After Sethe loses herself to caring for Beloved, Denver takes her first steps onto the path that will save the three women: connecting with others again. In her first steps outside of the house she’d been trapped in for so long, Denver begins to realize that the outside world contains what she’d been missing: connection. This is shown in her first interaction with others since the day she left Ms. Jones: “Both men touched their caps and murmured, ‘Morning. Morning.’ Denver believed her eyes spoke gratitude but she never got her mouth open in time to reply,” (Beloved, 289).For Denver, this action is especially remarkable because she has lived her life in isolation. By venturing out and doing what her mother could not -seeking support in others- she empowers herself and those around her to save her mother by praying at Bluestone: “Building voice upon voice until they found it, and when they did it was a wave of sound wide enough to sound deep water and knock the pods off chesnut trees. It broke over Sethe and she trembled like the baptized in its wash,” (Beloved, 309). Though they had done wrong to Sethe when Schoolteacher came, the community came to support Sethe in her time of need, when instigated by Denver. In this final act, Denver becomes not only her mother’s savior, but also a leader of her community. A community, which empowers Sethe and the house to finally heal from the scars cast by the institution of slavery.