Denver's Growth
Denver’s view of the people around her at the beginning of the book was clearly that of someone who hadn’t seen much of the world – she was sheltered both by Sethe’s turning the town away from the family, and also by her own decisions to stay within the yard. As we saw when Denver went to people in town to try to get a job to provide for Sethe and Beloved, the people had no ill will toward her at all and donated the family a lot of food. This instance probably contributed a lot to Denver rapidly growing more self-sufficient and conscious of what the world around her was like, since her world quickly expanded from just Sethe, Paul D, and Beloved. While Sethe was, understandably, guarded toward the outside world and Denver inherited that, seeing that there were ways to live outside of relying on her mother likely changed a lot for Denver. As well as that, seeing her mother (who, despite all of the problems between her and Denver, had always been successful in providing for her family)