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Directly on the following page is an excerpt from the bible, Romans 9:25: "I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." This is a confusing statement, taken by itself, and it seems to present a patent vision of isolation and rejection. As the novel evolves, however, it becomes clear this is not the case. This passage, as with everything Morrison writes, will need to be carefully rethought as the novel unfolds.
As the novel begins, it is clear that Sethe and her daughter are living in isolation. It is unclear what has happened, but there has been a staunch rejection of Sethe by her town. Living with only her daughter, Denver, and a baby's ghost, Sethe does not have any visitors at 124 Bluestone. When an old friend turns up in their yard, it is the first time anyone has been in their home in a very long time. .
" Denver stood at the bottom step and was suddenly hot and shy. It had been a long time since anybody (good-willed whitewoman, preacher speaker or newspaperman) sat at their table, their sympathetic voices called liar by the revulsion in their eyes. For twelve years, long before Grandma Baby had died, there had been no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends. No coloredpeople." .
When Sethe first came to 124, her mother-in-law's home, it was "was a softened place in which the African American community of Cincinnati met and exchanged information and food." Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs was the heart of this community. Not only was she a warm woman who opened up her home, but she was also an "unchurched preacher" .
Baby Suggs preached in The Clearing. Separate from any established churches, The Clearing provided a place where the community could gather and reclaim themselves- a place where they could reclaim God, outside of any white institutions. .
"The Clearing provides a place for "every man, woman and child who could make it through" to love themselves and each other in a way not sustainable in the e constricted world white Cincinnati and white America.
