Sethe's past seems to consume her entire life and everyone in it. Her home, haunted by the ghost of the child she lost, is isolated from her community, allowing her to dwell on the past with no intrusion from the present while constantly reminding her of her demons. In the beginning of the book, her character possesses a solidity and matter-of-fact attitude lent to her by her time and circumstance. As a run away slave, she has learned to remain distanced from caring too much about anything, save her daughter Denver. She is unapologetic about what she has done, having gained perspective through the time which separates her tragic past from her present. However, this facade of strength and resolve quickly dissipates once Beloved appears in her home. The seemingly infantile young woman, possessing the name inscribed on the tombstone of Sethe's murdered child, consumes Sethe's affections and resources as Sethe attempts to reconcile what she's done. Killing her child, which she believes she has done out of mother's love, was the only way she saw to protect them forever: destroying them herself before they could be destroyed by slavery. This crime, seeming to prove her lack of humanity to her owners, was actually committed because of the denial of her humanity she has faced her whole life. After being beaten down and treated as an animal, Sethe starts to believe it herself, but knows she will never allow her children to feel this way, even if it means killing them. Beloved embodies the struggle that Sethe faced and her ultimate decision to protect her children in the face of a primal fear only a mother could know.
The larger than life Stagger Lee's character throughout this musical drives the story around the truth that the central character's struggles could be played out in any of the last two centuries with unsettling ease. The musical takes place in various places and time periods, beginning in 1895 Mississippi and ending in present day Ferguson. The main couple, Billy and his Delilah, set out with hopes of opportunity and a better life for themselves and their children. Upon arriving in each new place, the characters are confronted with the realities of their situation: no money and no prospects. Billy's best friend from childhood, Stagger Lee, seems to travel with them, following a path of corruption, crime, and indulgence that leads him to wealth and power. He continually tempts Billy with his schemes, luring him in with the promise of success and the ability to provide for his family. The placing of the characters in multiple time period transforms the struggle between Billy and Stagger Lee into a larger struggle between an honest man and the ghost of a role discrimination and oppression have forced him into. In an interview with Will Powers by Buster Spiller for Theater Jones, the author explains how," you see Stagger Lee and how he’s human but you can also see someone who you consider to be the All-American African-American and see how those folks can be corrupted if the system keeps pushing down on them," reinforcing my point that Stagger Lee is bigger than a single man in Billy's life, but rather an image of what his life would have been if he had allowed himself to be transformed by the limitations placed on him as an African American male.
