"It looked like home to her, and the baby (not dead in the least) must have thought so too. As soon as Sethe got close to the river her own water broke loose to join it. The break, followed by the redundant announcement of labor, arched her back" (p. 83). Sethe crawled into a boat that soon began to fill with water. It was in this boat that Sethe gave birth to Denver. "When a foot rose from the riverbed and kicked the bottom of the boat and Sethe"s behind, she knew it was done and permitted herself a short faint" (p. 84). In these two passages, water signifies birth. Denver was thought to be dead until Sethe reached the river, a large body of water. Also, Denver is actually born in the water because the boat that Sethe was in was filled up with water. When Beloved first appears at Sethe"s house, Sethe leans in to look at the woman"s face. As she does so, she suddenly feels a great need to relive herself. "She never made the outhouse. Right in front of its door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless. Like a horse, she thought, but as it went on and on she thought, No, more like flooding the boat when Denver was born" (p.50). When Sethe looked at Beloved"s face, her bladder filled up. When she was relieving herself, the amount of urine reminded her of flooding the boat when her water broke at the time Denver was born. Denver"s birth is associated many times with water.

             Throughout her novel, Toni Morrison also uses the motif of water to signify re-birth. When we first meet Beloved, Morrison writes, "A fully dressed woman walked out of the water" (p. 50). In this passage, Beloved, the daughter that Sethe murdered 18 years ago, comes back to the world of the living. She comes straight out of the water. Here, water signifies the re-birth of Beloved. When Beloved is taken into the house, the only thing she asks for is water.