A Woman's Love (also Paul D is annoying)

While reading Beloved, I have been thinking a lot about the badass women in this book. I also can't stand Paul D. 

The story of Sethe and Amy Denver was such a powerful tale of a woman's love and empathy. Amy stops to help Sethe because of the baby she is carrying. While Amy is clearly still racist, she respects Sethe more than any white man would because she relates to her as a woman on the run and she is a mother.  The passage of Denver's birth was so beautiful it gave me the chills. Something about two women that just met coming together to deliver a baby in such dire circumstances makes my eyes well up. Amy goes to intimate measures to save Sethe and her baby, showing an empathy and kindness that just doesn't seem to be present in the male characters of Beloved.

One of my least favorite male characters is Paul D. Sethe, Denver, and Baby Suggs (all women) were the only ones brave enough to stay at 124. After Baby Suggs died it was just Sethe, Denver, and the baby ghost, but they were still managing just fine. It really bothered me that Paul D showed up and thought that for some reason he would just be able to get rid of the ghost that Sethe has been struggling with for years. What was even more frustrating to me was that he actually did (by wrecking her kitchen)! Of course it would be a man that came in and just fixed everything. I also am uncomfortable with Paul D's dislike for Beloved. She's just a young girl, but he is still jealous of her "stealing" away Sethe. What is his problem with Sethe having a healthy female relationship? She's been virtually alone for years.

Also I was appalled by his response to Sethe's reaction to hearing that Halle had let her be assaulted. He thinks she's in the wrong for wanting Halle to stop those men from assaulting her? Sethe was not saying Halle should have stopped them because he was a man. He should have stopped them because he is a human being, and her husband at that. Not to mention that the milk they stole was for his child. Sethe sure as hell would have said or done something if she was in Halle's position and I believe that most women in Beloved would have.