When she loses her way, and fails to meet him, he asks the wind for assistance, and gets it. When Sixo arranges to meet his Thirty-Mile Woman in a stone shelter ‘that Redmen used way back when they thought the land was theirs,’ he asks the spirit of the Redmen for permission to enter. Morrison, as Sitter notes, suggests that Sixo represents an African ideal of masculinity, by accentuating his ‘Africanness.’ His manliness stems not from the approval of others, nor from the disempowerment of others, but from an unfailing respect that he demonstrates for everyone, whether alive or dead, and for the natural and supernatural worlds. Sixo is drawn on a heroic scale, not defining himself by the opinions of others, or his judgement of their superiority or inferiority. Looking to Beloved for an alternative to Paul D’s other-affirmed masculinity, we find Sixo.
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