Denver's recognition that she needs to "step off the edge of the world" and leave the house to find help signifies the beginning of her movement from the paralyzing world of the past into the freedom of the present. By taking this step, Denver re-enters the black community and propels herself into womanhood. Every connection she makes to other community members draws her farther from her mother and Beloved's unhealthy love and deeper into a life of possibilities. She learns to read, gets a job, and experiences her first feelings of attraction to a man.
Carrying on the pervasive theme of the lingering trouble caused by slavery, Lady Jones epitomizes the half-breed, "Gray eyes and yellow woolly hair, every strand of which she hated." An altruistic lover of children, she exerts maternal love to vault over her own isolation, widowhood, and failing vision. Recognizing Denver's needs, she envelops the young woman in love. Lady's intuitive assessment of the situation at 124 Bluestone Road leads her to share "rice, four eggs and some tea" with Denver.
Lady Jones's outpouring of charity serves as partial payment for the sufferings that every ex-slave has known in servitude. Morrison describes the pain that assaulted Baby Suggs, Ella, Stamp Paid, and Paul D: "That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn't think it up."
