In Cincinnati, far from the misshapen Mrs. Garner, the atavistic savagery of the "mossy teeth," and schoolteacher's sadism, Sethe sinks into the masochism of a fruitless emotional duel with her dead child's ghost. These emotional battles are virulent enough to rock the house on its foundations, smashing glass and rending a table leg. Only the steadying male hand of Paul D forces Beloved to abate her attacks and leave Sethe temporarily in peace.
To relieve the tension of this tight camera angle on a single house wracked by three warring females, Morrison selects an oddly evocative mix of side journeys. When Paul D chooses to make a public statement of his intentions, he leads his two women to the carnival, which is set alongside a lumberyard decked with late season roses reeking of overripe perfume. The freaks of the sideshow contrast the hand-holding shadow that predicts a family threesome.
In later scenes, after Beloved derails Sethe's small increment of security, Morrison reveals glimpses of Cincinnati's coldly judgmental black community. Paul D, whom Stamp Paid locates on the steps of the Church of the Holy Redeemer, sits in sunshine and indulges in strong drink from a bottle decked with a golden chariot. Along the plank road, a rider approaches, spurring Stamp Paid into the elaborate know-nothing guise of the Negro who has no information to share with the white outsider.
