124. The first thing to appear, and we already have a significant number. Sethe has four children. The third one is dead. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 remain. Another number that stands alone in its significance is twenty-eight. Twenty-eight is the length of the menstrual cycle, the lunar month, and the duration of Sethe's happiness: "Sethe had had twenty-eight days - the travel of one whole moon - of unslaved life. From the pure clear stream of spit that the little girl dribbled into her face to her oily blood was twenty-eight days" (95). Sethe has lived twenty years of sorrow, for twenty-eight days of pleasure, and spends another eighteen suffering before Paul D and Beloved brighten her life again. "Those twenty-eight happy days were followed by eighteen years of disapproval an

Other trinities are present: death, life, and birth; the old woman Baby Suggs, the mother Sethe, and the daughter Denver. The Pauls at Sweet Home were three brothers. Howard, Buglar and Denver formed a self-protecting trinity against their mother. The Bodwins specifically help three generations: "The Bodwins were most likely to help since they had done it twice. Once for Baby Suggs and once for [Denver's] mother. Why not the third generation as well?" (252). Mackey observes that blood, milk and water form a trinity. Throughout the book, the number three occurs in significant ways, indicating relationships that are stronger than nearly anything else.

Even chickens appear in twos. More importantly, they are nearly always hens or eggs. Eggs are a fertility symbol. This is why we have: "a couple of chickens", "two yard eggs the hen herself didn't even remember", "two laying hens", "the hen had only two eggs", "some rice, four eggs, and some tea" (136, 190, 239, 240, 248). The reoccurrence of these two eggs from a mother hen is reminiscent of the maternal relationship between Sethe and her two daughters.

The trinity is important to survival, and they could not live without it: "Whatever was happening, it only worked with three-not two-..." (243). The trinity is finally fractured as Beloved becomes more vengeful, more sexual, and turns from three towards the nature of two: "The two of them cut Denver out of the games" (239). Since the stability is damaged once the trinity is broken, Denver goes into the world for outside help.

Some topics in this essay:
Beloved Denver, Beloved Significant, Beloved Paul, African Sixty, Howard Buglar, Marianne Schimmel, According Gaskell, Finally Denver, Suggs Denver's, Son Holy, trinity sethe, baby suggs, howard buglar, twenty-eight days, sethe paul, twos fours, sethe paul denver, denver beloved, sacred trinity, thirty-mile woman, sethe denver, mother child trinity, trinity sethe paul, father mother child, trinity sethe denver,