The past's presence in Sethe's life is a major theme in Beloved. In fact, the driving force behind the murder of her daughter was Sethe's memory of the past. Although she had built a new life out of slavery, the horrors of her life under slavery prodded her into action, into saving her children from that past. In essay number eight, Doug Boin, cleveland Lawrence, and Patrick Ball nicely explained Sethe's view of the past.
In relating her painful experineces at Sweet Home, Sethe says "The picture is still there and what's more If you go there - you who never was there - if you go there and stand in the place where it was it will happen again: it will be there waiting for you...."(p.36) This experience is extremely painful for Sethe to think about - as if when thinking about it, she relives the experience - thus, no matter how many years go by, no matter how far away she travels, she can never escape the experience, through memory - which in turn will always be real.
In contrast to Vladek's past, Sethe's overwhelms her and her family. Denver lived in constant fear that whatever was outside of her gate, whatever was in Sethe's past, might come again to cause Sethe to take Denver's life. Sethe had allowed the past to take over her present, resulting in the materialization of Beloved. Beloved began as a benign force in 124 and grew and swelled as Sethe continued to dwell on the past. Sethe's neighbor Ella had not been particularly understanding of Sethe's crime, but when Beloved took over, she was motivated to act. "Ella didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present."(256) In this way Ella is saying that it is natural for people to bounce back and forth between the past and the present. One, however, cannot overrule the other.