234). Her house was haunted by the angry spirit of Beloved, who resented being separated from her mother and buried in the ground (88-89). The other members of the community knew about her past and were terrified of her haunted home, and no one would associate with her.

However, Paul D. reminded Sethe of her humanity. First, he exorcised the house of its baby ghost (22) and then he took her to the carnival (55), which was her first social outing in eighteen years. At that point Paul was as yet unaware that she had killed her baby girl. As the story progresses, the truth emerges. In the conversation between Sethe and Paul D (194-195), Sethe tells Paul the story of how she killed her baby girl when Schoolteacher and the other men arrived to take her and her children back to Sweet Home. Paul, horrified, tells Sethe as he...
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