Outside of Sweet Home

In this section of Beloved, Morrison greatly emphasizes the importance of space, physical space, especially places. As we’ve noticed from the beginning chapters, every location mentioned in the story is linked to a rememory, the rememory of Sweet Home, or Alfred, Georgia. Some characters are also linked to an assigned space. Sixo’s lover, for example, is only referred to as the “Thirty Mile Woman” because Sixo had to travel thirty miles away from Sweet Home to see her. This woman’s name in the story suggests that Sweet Home was more or less the center of the world. In fact, even when the woman escapes from Schoolteacher and is currently no longer thirty miles away, but just outside of Sweet Home, she is still referred to as “Thirty Mile Woman.” I find it interesting that this woman is never given a proper name, yet her baby, “Seven-O,” is given a name that links him to his father. While the baby is given a proper name that secures family connections, the mother of the child is still not given a proper name which continues to separate her from Sweet Home, or perhaps separates Sweet Home from the rest of the world.
The bubble that is Sweet Home also defines manhood but in two completely opposite ways. In the first part of the novel we learn that all the male slaves of Sweet Home were men, according to Mr. Garner. This is different from all the slaves outside of Sweet Home who were not raised to be men. But on page 260, Paul D wonders about the manliness of Sixo and Halle and states that “it was always clear […] that those two were men whether Garner said so or not.” While Paul D may have many reasons for thinking this, he does mention one aspect of Halle and Sixo that separate them from the other slaves and Sweet Home. Morrison writes, “Only Sixo, who has been stealing away to see his woman, and Halle, who has been hired away for years, know what lies outside Sweet Home and how to get there” (263). It is interesting that the only two men Paul D know for sure are true men are also the only two men who have been away from Sweet Home, who “know what lies outside Sweet Home.” In this definition of manhood, being away from Sweet Home is what actually matters.