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Denver's birth is assisted by Amy Denver, whom she is named after, a white girl that helped Sethe escape.
Event: “Amy fairly clawed at the head. When a foot rose from the river bed and kicked the bottom of the boat and Sethe’s behind, she knew it was done…Nothing happened for so long they both believed they had lost it. Sethe arched and suddenly the afterbirth shot out. Then the baby whimpered and Sethe looked.” (pg. 99) Reaction: “Denver stopped and sighed. This was the part of the story she loved. She was coming to it now, and she loved it because it was all about herself." (pg. 91) -
Baby Suggs' Death - affected Denver deeply
Event: “One or the other might have saved her, but beaten up by the claims of both, she went to bed. The whitefolks had tired her out at last.” (pg. 212) Reaction: “Remembering those conversations and her grandmother’s last and final words, Denver stood on the porch in the sun and couldn’t leave it. Her throat itched; her heart kicked.” (pg. 287) -
Paul D comes to 124
Event: “…Sitting on the porch not forty feet away was Paul D, the last of the Sweet Home men.” (pg. 7) Reaction: “And carnival or no carnival, Denver preferred the venomous baby to him any day. During the first days after Paul D moved in, Denver stayed in her emerald closet as long as she could, lonely as a mountain and almost as big, thinking everybody had somebody but her.” (pg. 123) -
The Carnival
Event: “…All the time the three shadows that shot out of their feet held hands…She decided that it was a good sign. A life. Could be.” (pg. 57) Reaction: “Denver was swaying with delight. And on the way home, although leading them now, the shadows of the three people still held hands.” (pg. 59) -
Beloved's Arrival at 124
Event: “A fully dressed woman walked out of the water.” (pg. 60) Reaction: “When I came back to 124, there she was. Beloved. Waiting for me. Tired from her long journey back. Ready to be taken care of; ready for me to protect her.” (pg. 243) -
Isolation of Denver
Event: “The two of them cut Denver out of the games.” (pg. 282) Reaction: “When it became clear that they were only interested in each other, Denver began to drift from the play, but she watched it, alert for any sign that Beloved was in danger.” (pg. 283) -
Devotion to Sethe
Event: “…It rocked Denver like a gunshot. The job she started out with, protecting Beloved from Sethe, changed to protecting her mother from Beloved.” (pg. 286) Reaction: “…It dawned on Denver that if Sethe didn’t wake up one morning and pick up a knife, Beloved might. Frightened as she was by the thing in Sethe that could come out, it shamed her to see her mother serving a girl not much older than herself.” (pg. 285) -
Leaving, for her own benefit
Event: “Denver knew it was on her. She would have to leave the yard; step off the edge of the world, leave the two behind and go ask somebody for help.” (pg. 286) Reaction: “…Although she was afraid to leave Sethe and Beloved alone all day not knowing what calamity either one of them would create, she came to realize that her presence had no influence on what either woman did.” (pg. 296)