Beloved entries for Part One

1. "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom." (pg. 1) Already we learn so much about the story. That a baby ghost haunts 124 and that it isn't exactly friendly. As our culture tends to present babies as innocent and faultless, it appears something horrible must have happened to this child for it to be venemous. We will learn later in the story what has happened to the baby called Beloved.


2. "Sethe balled up her stockings and jammed them into her pocket." (pg. 7) This suggests that though she obviously knows this man and has known him for a long time, she is still a bit uncomfortable around him. The fact that she is a bit self-conscious about being barefoot in his presence shows that she is not totally at ease when he is near. This reveals a potential darkness in their past relationship.

3. "...they lay side by side resentful of one another and the skylight above them." (pg. 24) This suggests that they may regret the fact that they've just had sex, despite the fact that they both seemed to be looking forward to it minutes ago. This shows how time can change people. Even though they had a flirtation 18 years ago, and they probably would have loved it back then, being apart for so long and the experiences they have both had during these years makes it impossible for them to enjoy this act. He has dreamt about her for so long that the actual thing is a letdown. She has been celibate for so long, that sex isn't quite what she remembered. This could also be a tool to show that there is something fundamentally wrong with their relationship.

4. "He never got it right, but they...and giving him advice." (pg. 25) This is a metaphor for the men's lives. They are taking what they are given and making the best of the situation. Though they are enslaved and living a nearly intolerable lifestyle, they just grin and bear it. Just like the potatoes, even when things don't turn out right, they just keep on laughing and move on. This is what trees represent for Paul D. and the rest: the ability to tolerate their circumstances and rise above.

5. "How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free." (pg. 33) This quote refers to corn that was picked too early. This is a metaphor to Sethe's sex life. She feels as though she started too young, and now it is too easy to get her to have sex. She had sex with the man in the graveyard so he would engrave her daughter's headstone, and she had sex with Paul D. the first night he was back in her life. Though she says this, she doesn't seem resentful. The way she talks about it suggests that she views sex as a type of freedom, something she has control over when she had control over almost nothing else.

6. "...the circumstances of Denver's birth in a canoe straddled by a whitegirl..." (pg. 35) This suggests that, though Denver loves the story of her birth as it is all about her, she may resent the situation in which she was born. It enforces the idea that Denver is sort of a throw away baby, one her mother uses in her subconscious to replace Beloved, even though Denver believes that Sethe loves Beloved more.

7. "Anything dead coming back to life hurts." (pg. 42) This could suggest that the reason Sethe and Denver are in so much pain is because the ghost of Beloved still haunts them. Sethe's sons have left because of the ghost, and now they are being ostracized in the community. Denver has lived most of her life in solitude. It could also be talking about when Beloved comes back to the house in the form of a person. She hurts Sethe and Paul D. by making him leave, and she hurts Denver by saying that Denver doesn't matter to her as much as Sethe does.

8. "...that must mean nothing ever dies." (pg. 44) This refers to the individual pasts that each character must patch together and face. Every person in this book is fighting with something in their past, either by blocking it out or remembering too much. Memories are the brain's way of keeping things alive. The sad and almost frightened way Denver says this suggests that the characters in the book do not necessarily like the fact that they cannot repress their memories forever.

9. "For a used-to-be-slave woman...on to love." (pg. 54) This is extremely telling about two themes in the book. The first being what it's like for a slave in this time period. This quote lets us know that slaves realized it was dangerous to love anything for too long, especially people and especially when those people were your children. There was a very real danger that they could be taken away from you or you from them. Another theme it backs up is the idea of the past as a thing the characters struggle with. The reason that Sethe loves Denver so much is because her other children have been taken away from her, Baby Suggs has died, and she believes Halle has left her.

10. "...the moment she got close enough to see the face, Sethe's bladder filled to capacity." (pg. 61) This, even before we learn the woman's name, is a sign that this girl might be a representation of Sethe's baby returning. When her bladder fills up and she can't even make it to the bathroom, and there's so much of it is symbolic of her breaking water to go into labor. The fact that it happens as soon as this new person arrives represents the birth of Beloved.

11. “…out of love and a breakneck possessiveness…” (pg. 64) The fact that Denver already feels this way about Beloved further backs up the idea that Beloved is the reincarnation of Sethe’s dead baby. It also shows us just how lonely Denver has been her whole life. She has longed for a sister, or any companion really, for so long that when one comes along Denver gets attached to her without a second thought.

12. “It’s a tree…In bloom” (pg. 93) In this passage Amy describes the lashes from the whip that show on Sethe’s back. She is trying to comfort Sethe by finding something good in her misfortune and pain. Trees in this book represent what’s familiar, something alive and comforting in the midst of death and melancholy. The fact that Sethe always has a tree with her may be why she is able to easily overcome her memories once she gets the courage to confront them.

13. “There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks.” (pg. 105) This is a contrast to earlier in the novel when Denver is referred to as lucky. This is a contrast because Denver was brought into the world by a “whitegirl”.

14. "Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." (pg. 111) This shows us the difference between being free physically and being free of spirit. Being free physically just means having the ability to decide what you want to do every day. To actually have the mental capacity to figure out how to take care of yourself and how to deal with your past to form a new, functioning life is more difficult.

15. "She looked at Denver, and seeing panic..." (pg. 115) This is the first suggestion we get that Denver believes Beloved tried to strangle Sethe. Denver earlier says she doesn't believe Baby Suggs would have done this, but now we know she thinks it was Beloved. This betrays some of Denver's deeper resentment towards Beloved. Though she has bonded with her quickly, having desperately needed companionship, there are darker emotions there as well. Denver has always believed that Sethe loved Beloved better, even though Denver was alive while the baby was not. Once she got past the initial glow of finally having a sister after all these years, some of these feelings begin to come back.

16. "She went deaf rather than hear the answer" (pg. 123) This shows how, even though people sometimes want to learn about the past, they can't confront it until they have the emotional capacity to deal with it. Denver had a physical reaction to an emotional issue. Rather than confronting the past and learning about Beloved's death, she stopped hearing altogether. It is suggested that this incident is the reason Denver has no desire to hear stories of the past from Sethe unless they have to do with herself.

17. "Cypress, yellow poplar, ash, and palmetto drooped under five days of rain without wind." (pg. 129) This symbolizes Paul D.'s loss of identity, life, and spirit. Trees used to represent life, comfort, viatlity. The idea that even the trees have succumbed to the sorrow of the rain shows how completely Paul D. has given up on everything. He's been overcome by the relentless sorrow surrounding him every day and he's stopped trying to beat it.