Beloved PDF

Beloved
Study Guide by Course Hero
stream-of-consciousness (a person's thoughts and conscious

What's Inside reactions to events) monologues in Part 2.
ABOUT THE TITLE

j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 Beloved is the ghost of an infant girl killed by her mother. Her
murder is central to all the events in the story.
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2
h Characters ................................................................................................... 2 d In Context

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 5
c Chapter Summaries ............................................................................... 11 Fugitive Slave Laws

g Quotes ........................................................................................................ 28 According to the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and 1850, it was
illegal for anyone, whether in a free or slave state, to help
l Symbols ..................................................................................................... 30
enslaved people escape. Protecting them or housing them was
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 31 also illegal. Slaves were seen as property, and local
governments were required to return escaped slaves to their
e Suggested Reading .............................................................................. 32 owners. Slave owners were allowed to cross into free territory
to reclaim their property.
j Book Basics Slavery and Family Life

AUTHOR Set in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873, Beloved takes place after the
Toni Morrison end of the Civil War. However, flashbacks take the reader to a
time when slavery was still the law of the land. Survivors of the
YEAR PUBLISHED
brutal Middle Passage, the inhumane crossing by ship over the
1987
Atlantic Ocean, were sold to the highest bidder. Their names
were changed, and they were forced into labor. Enslaved
GENRE
people were often treated like animals. When they disobeyed,
Drama
they were chained and beaten or tortured in other ways. It was
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR rare for slaves to be taught to read or write. Families were
Beloved has a third-person omniscient narrator and often uses often broken up; mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers were
flashbacks. sold and sent off to separate farms. Slave women of
childbearing age were seen as birthing machines. Their job
TENSE was to produce as many new slaves as possible, especially
Beloved is told in the past tense, with the exception of several following the 1807 law halting the importation of slaves from
Beloved Study Guide Author Biography 2
Africa. Slave populations were kept steady due to the the rape in Playing in the Dark, her 1990 book of literary criticism, "The
of black women by white men that produced "domesticated" kind of work I have always wanted to do requires me to learn
and trainable children. There was no regard for motherhood, how to maneuver ways to free up the language from its ...
love, or family continuity. In fact, as slave narratives such as employment of racially informed and determined chains."
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass show, family bonds
among slaves were discouraged to ensure dependency on the Beloved has inspired both acclaim and controversy since its
slave owners. release. Critics argued that it did not paint a true picture of
slavery, while supporters celebrated its frankness. Some
readers also objected to the novel's dedication, "Sixty Million
Margaret Garner and more," arguing that Morrison was setting up a comparison
between the deaths of enslaved Africans and African
Americans and the six million Jews who perished in the
Beloved is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner. Born
Holocaust. Other critics have argued that through Beloved
a slave in Kentucky, Garner, her husband, and their four
Morrison helped readers think differently about U.S. history.
children escaped to Cincinnati in 1856. They made it to a safe
The novel paints a brutal picture of slavery yet shows how
house, but within hours their master and federal marshals
those who were enslaved managed to remain human.
captured them. Garner was determined that she and her
children would not return to captivity. She took her children to After the book was released, the African American community
a back room. When the authorities found her, she had slit her was angry that Beloved did not receive the National Book
two-year-old daughter's throat and wounded the other Award; it was instead a finalist. Black writers placed an ad in
children. the New York Times applauding the novel, and Beloved did go
on to win the Pulitzer the following year.
a Author Biography
h Characters
Toni Morrison, whose given name was Chloe Anthony Wofford,
was born February 18, 1931, and grew up in an African
American working-class family in Lorain, Ohio. Morrison
debuted as a novelist in 1970 with The Bluest Eye, a Sethe
controversial story set during the Great Depression. She has
won numerous literary awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in Sethe, an escaped slave, is the main character of the novel.
1988 and a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her major role in life is that of mother; her children are
everything to her. Sethe experiences the brutality of slavery
Morrison left her job as a fiction editor at a prominent firsthand, being beaten and dehumanized. In a culture of
publishing house just before writing Beloved in 1987. Her own servitude, where family relationships don't matter to the slave
newfound sense of freedom led her to contemplate what owners, Sethe feels blessed that all four of her children have
freedom meant for women and especially for African American the same father. Sethe is a strong woman. On her own she
women. She remembered a newspaper clipping she had once manages to get her children safely to Cincinnati, where they
read about an escaped slave named Margaret Garner, who, will be free. When their freedom is threatened, she will do
when cornered with her children by slave hunters, killed her anything to keep her children from having to live through the
daughter so that the child would not have to return to the horrors she has endured. Out of love she makes the "rough
plantation from which they had escaped. Morrison decided to choice" to kill them. She manages to kill one of her children and
tell Garner's story as a work of fiction; thus, Beloved came to is sent to jail. Freed from jail, she is alienated from her
be written as an assurance that the evils of slavery will never community. She tries to keep memories of the past at bay, but,
be forgotten. with the help of others, including the ghost of her dead child,
she finally faces those memories. She accepts the past and
Beloved also shows Morrison exploring racial labels and moves toward the future. Sethe is a symbol of motherhood in
identity, topics that are central to all of her work. As she writes its most profound form. By killing her child, she "saved" it from
Copyright © 2019 Course Hero, Inc.

Beloved Study Guide Characters 3
a life of servitude and despair. own child, he is appalled, compares her to an animal, and
leaves her. Slowly, he comes to terms with his own and Sethe's
past and determines to make a future with her.
Beloved
Beloved is murdered by her mother when their former master Baby Suggs
comes to reclaim them after they escape slavery. At first, she
haunts the family as the ghost of a baby, playing planks that At the beginning of the novel, Baby Suggs is dead. The reader
gradually become more serious. Later, she returns in the form learns about her through flashbacks. During her time as a
of an 18-year-old woman to manipulate her mother and sister slave, she became crippled and was only allowed to raise one
and to drive away her mother's new lover. Her disturbing and of her eight children, all of whom had different fathers. Baby
demanding presence forces them to face the memories of Suggs was the matriarch of the family whose freedom was
their past. She is eventually driven out of their lives. bought by her devoted son, Halle. She asserted her newfound
freedom and independence by taking her husband's name.
Baby Suggs welcomed Sethe and the children into her home
Denver and became a stabilizing force for them. She was also
prominent in the community, holding gatherings in the Clearing,
Denver, Sethe's youngest child, is an innocent victim of the teaching them to love themselves. After Sethe killed her
events of the novel. She spends her childhood isolated from daughter in the woodshed, Baby Suggs slowly died, believing
the outside community because her mother killed her older that white people were bad luck.
sister and the tragedy caused their neighbors to shun them.
She becomes a teenager constantly searching for her own
identity. At the same time, she craves attention from her
mother and Beloved. Learning what her mother has done, she
lives in constant fear that her mother will kill her too. She
dreams about her father coming to live with them and is
resentful when Paul D moves in. Throughout the novel Denver
becomes more independent. At one point she becomes the
caregiver for both Beloved and her mother. Desperate, she
summons the courage to leave the house to ask community
members for help. It is then that she feels herself become a
woman. When Beloved is driven out for good, Denver finds a
job and begins to prepare to go to college.
Paul D
Paul D is a fellow slave at Sweet Home farm when he meets
Sethe. When she chooses Halle, Paul D and the other men still
fantasize about her. Paul D is caught, trying to escape, and
taken back to the farm in chains. He is sold and attempts to kill
his new owner. Forced to work on a prison chain gang, he is
miraculously able to escape to the North. For years he
wanders around, never putting down roots, and not wanting to.
Finally, he ends up in Cincinnati, at Sethe's home. Paul D and
Sethe are lovers until Beloved begins to control him and he is
tormented by her. When he finds out that Sethe murdered her

Beloved Study Guide Characters 4
Character Map
Grandmother/Granddaughter
Beloved
Deceased daughter;
haunts house in form
of young woman
Grandmother/
Sisters Granddaughter
Mother/Daughter
Mother-in
Mother/ Law/Daughter
Denver Daughter Sethe -in Law Baby Suggs
Sethe's 10-year-old Escaped slave; murders Sethe's mother-in-law;
daughter infant daughter voice from the past
Lovers
Paul D
Ex-slave; Sethe's friend
from Sweet Home
Main Character
Other Major Character
Minor Character

Beloved Study Guide Plot Summary 5
Full Character List Miss Bodwin is a white woman,

sister of Mr. Bodwin, who is
Miss Bodwin
opposed to slavery and helps
Denver.
Character Description
Mr. Bodwin is a white man, brother

Sethe, the main character, is an ex-
Mr. Bodwin to Miss Bodwin, who is opposed to
Sethe slave who murdered her baby
slavery. He owns 124 Bluestone.
daughter.
Mr. Garner is a "kinder" slave

Beloved is the ghost of Sethe's Mr. Garner
Beloved owner at Sweet Home.
murdered daughter.
Nelson Lord is the boy who asks

Denver is Sethe's youngest
Denver Nelson Lord Denver if Sethe had been in jail for
daughter.
murder.
Paul D is an ex-slave who has a

Paul D Paul A is one of the slaves at
history with Sethe. Paul A
Sweet Home.
Baby Suggs is Sethe's mother-in- Paul F is one of the slaves at Sweet

Baby Suggs law and the children's Paul F
Home.
grandmother.
Sawyer is the owner of the

Amy Denver is a white former Sawyer
restaurant where Sethe works.
Amy Denver indentured servant who helps
Sethe deliver Denver.
The schoolteacher is a cruel slave
Schoolteacher
owner at Sweet Home.
Buglar is Sethe's son who has run
Buglar
away.
Sixo, a Sweet Home slave, is part
Sixo Native American and a "rebel" slave
Ella is an ex-slave who is also who is murdered.
Ella responsible for the death of one of
her children.
Stamp Paid is a former slave who
Stamp Paid worked on the Underground
Halle is Sethe's missing husband Railroad.
Halle
and the father of her children.
Thirty-Mile Woman is the slave

Here Boy Here Boy is the dog at 124. Thirty-Mile Woman
Sixo tries to escape with.
Howard is Sethe's son who has run Vashti Vashti is Stamp Paid's wife.
Howard
away.
Janey Wagon is the servant at the

Janey Wagon
Bodwins' home.
k Plot Summary
Lady Jones is the teacher in
Lady Jones Beloved is divided into three sections. Each section begins with
Sethe's Cincinnati community.
a description of the house in which the main characters live.
Ma'am Ma'am is Sethe's mother. Through a series of flashbacks and dialogues in the present,
readers learn about major events in the lives of people, who
have been all but ruined by slavery.

goes to 124 to try to make amends. As he approaches he hears

Part 1 strange voices coming from the house. He leaves and returns
several times, each time without entering. On his final attempt,
Beloved begins, "124 was spiteful." This house at 124 Bluestone he looks through the window and sees Beloved but can't make
Road in the outskirts of Cincinnati is being haunted by the sense of what he sees.
ghost of a dead baby. Sethe, a former slave, and her daughter
Denver live there with the ghost, who has become part of their Sethe is content with her life inside 124 with Denver and
lives. But Sethe's two sons, Howard and Buglar, have been Beloved. Scenes from her life—cooking at a restaurant and
driven out by the ghost. Baby Suggs, Denver's grandmother spending time with the girls—are interspersed with her
and Sethe's mother-in-law, has died. Paul D, a former slave memories of Sweet Home. She no longer minds talking about
who used to work at Sweet Home plantation with Sethe, her horrific past. Beloved tells Sethe that she has come from
arrives at 124, drives out the ghost, and moves in. the other side, and Sethe understands that the strange girl is
her dead baby who has come back to her. She tries to explain
Just as they all are getting used to the new family to Beloved that she killed her as an act of love.
arrangement, a strange woman arrives at 124. She doesn't
know where she's from, but she tells them her name is Paul D sits on a church porch and tries to make sense of his
Beloved. Completely unable to care for herself, this disturbed memories of their last days at Sweet Home. He wonders what
and disturbing person moves in with the family, asking strange went awry in the escape plan for the Sweet Home men,
questions that bring up painful memories of the past. Sethe including Halle, Sethe's husband, and Sethe and her children.
and Denver are drawn to Beloved, feeding her and caring for Stamp Paid finds him and apologizes for telling him the truth
her as if she were an infant. Sethe begins to answer Beloved's about Sethe.
strange questions, which contain details of the past that only
Sethe knows. Denver comes to believe that Beloved is the
ghost of her dead sister. Part 3
Paul D is irritated with Beloved's presence and eventually
"124 was quiet," begins the last part of the novel. Sethe has
moves out into the cold house. Beloved talks him into sleeping
stopped working at the restaurant, and everyone in the house
with her, awakening in him raw memories of his past. Through
is starving. They have squandered their meager savings on
a flashback the reader learns that their former master arrived
ribbons and colorful clothes that delight Beloved. Denver has
at 124 to capture Sethe and her children and take them back to
been shunned, and Sethe now spends all her time with
Sweet Home in Kentucky. Rather than face that ugly life again,
Beloved. Denver decides to search for work outside. The
Sethe tried to kill her children and herself. However, she only
neighbors leave food on a stump by the house to aid the
succeeded in killing her toddler, slitting her throat with a
troubled residents.
hacksaw. Her sons were wounded but survived, and Denver
was unharmed. The master left without the slaves, and Sethe News spreads of Beloved's puzzling appearance at 124.
and Denver were taken to jail. Joining together, a group of women decide to free Sethe and
Denver. Denver's boss, Mr. Bodwin, also approaches the house
Another former slave, Stamp Paid, shows Paul D a newspaper
to pick up Denver for work. Sethe sees him and mistakes him
clipping about the murder. Paul D can't read and denies that
for her former master. She attacks him with an ice pick but is
the story is about Sethe. When he confronts Sethe, she tells
stopped by Denver and the women, whereupon Beloved
him the truth: that she killed the baby out of love. Paul D
vanishes, never to return.
compares her to an animal and leaves 124.
Sethe loses her mind and lies down to die, as Baby Suggs had.
Denver has a good job and is working toward attending
Part 2 college. Paul D returns to Sethe to tell her he wants a future
with her, getting her back up on her feet to walk again. The
"124 was loud," begins Part 2. Stamp Paid feels that he is to members of 124, along with the community, have been
blame for what happened between Paul D and Sethe, so he released from the tragedy of Beloved so that they can move

forward into a better life.

Plot Diagram
Climax
7
Falling Action
6
Rising Action
5 8
4
9
3
Resolution
2
1
Introduction
7. A group of women arrive at 124; Beloved disappears.

Introduction
1. 124 is being haunted by a baby ghost.

Falling Action
8. Paul D promises to take care of Sethe.
Rising Action
2. Former slave Paul D moves into 124 and banishes ghost.

Resolution
3. A strange girl who calls herself Beloved moves in.
9. Welcomed by community, the family forgets Beloved.
4. Memories of being enslaved surface in Sethe and Paul D.
5. Sethe tells Paul D she killed her child; Paul D moves out.
6. Sethe becomes weak; neighbors begin to help.
Climax

Timeline of Events
1873
Sethe and her daughter, Denver, live in 124, a house

haunted by a mischievous baby ghost.
August 1873
Paul D, who knew Sethe 18 years before, arrives,

banishes the ghost, and moves in.
Four days later
A strange woman found leaning against a tree moves

into 124.
A few days later
Sethe remembers killing her daughter to keep her from

returning to slavery.
1874
Stamp Paid shows Paul D a news story about Sethe

killing her baby daughter.
The same day
Paul D confronts Sethe, who confesses the murder, and

Paul D moves out.
A few days later
Beloved hums a song that Sethe made up; Sethe realizes

Beloved is her dead daughter.
Spring 1874
Sethe and Denver are starving; Beloved demands all the

food and attention.
April 1875
Denver visits Lady Jones about a job; Denver tells her

about Beloved. The news spreads.
Summer 1875

The neighbor women march to 124 to expel the ghost;

Beloved vanishes.

Beloved Study Guide Chapter Summaries 11
found out she told Mrs. Garner, the plantation's widowed

c Chapter Summaries owner, of this insult, and so schoolteacher allowed one of the
boys to whip her, opening up her back. The scar has formed
Beloved is divided into three parts, each of which is further into the shape of a tree, and the experience "punched the
divided into chapters marked by a page break but not given glittering iron" out of Sethe's eyes, in Paul D's memory.
titles or numbers. This study guide numbers the chapters for
Paul D embraces Sethe and kisses the scars on her back,
ease of reference.
which causes the ghost to roar to life. Paul D shouts at the
ghost and suddenly it is gone. Denver misses her brothers and
Part 1, Chapter 1 reflects that now the ghost, who was her only other company,
has been driven out.
Summary Analysis
124 Bluestone Road has been haunted for years by the ghost This opening chapter introduces all the novel's major symbols
of a baby that is furious at "having its throat cut." The setting is and themes. The story begins with the house number 124, a
the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873. Only Sethe, a former symbol of Sethe's missing baby, whom—readers will learn—she
slave, and her 10-year-old daughter, Denver, experience the has murdered. Readers learn about the "tree" (scar) on Sethe's
ghost's spite. Sethe's mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, has died, back, used here as a symbol of evil, and the colors that
worn out from a life so intolerable all she could think about at comforted Baby Suggs, such as lavender and pink—anything
the end was colors. Sethe's sons, Howard and Buglar, have run but red, the color of blood. The pump water reminds Sethe of
away. Sethe and Denver try to call up the ghost to reason with Sweet Home but also foreshadows the healing arrival of Paul
it, but nothing happens. Sethe thinks of the baby's headstone, D. The baby ghost, a central character and the symbol of
on which only the word Beloved is engraved. The reader never Sethe's past enslavement, has scared off Sethe's sons and
learns the baby's birth name. Sethe reflects that Beloved is disrupts her renewed relationship with Paul D. All the symbols
written on her gravestone because she couldn't afford to have point to the horrors of slavery and its enduring legacy, though
more than a word of the preacher's eulogy engraved. To get Morrison will also use water and trees as symbols of hope and
that word carved, she had to agree to have sex with the comfort.
engraver.
In this chapter the arrival of the ghost and Paul D conjures
Sethe walks through a field of chamomile, and the sap makes memories of Sethe's painful past, including her rape, which
her legs itch. As she washes it at the pump, the sight of the reduced her to an animal and stripped her of her identity.
water suddenly evokes memories of Sweet Home, the Readers also see how Sethe works to suppress her guilt; she
plantation where she was enslaved. Paul D, who had been a "worked hard to remember as close to nothing as was safe."
fellow slave with Sethe at Sweet Home, arrives and sits on Finally, Sethe tells Denver about the powerful way she loved
Sethe's porch. They have not seen each other in 18 years, the dead baby who now harbors so much rage.
since Sethe tried to run away from Sweet Home. Paul D
immediately experiences the wrath of the ghost, which tries to
drive him out. He remembers the other men who belonged to
Sweet Home, including Sethe's husband, Halle, and how the
Part 1, Chapter 2
arrival of the cruel overseer called schoolteacher changed
their lives.
Summary
Sethe tells Paul D that schoolteacher's nephews held her down
and "took her milk" when she was pregnant with Denver. They Paul D can't believe his luck at finding Sethe, a woman whom
raped her and nursed from her breasts the milk for the baby he had always desired. Sethe and he have quick sex, followed
she had already sent away, along with her two sons. The boys by some shy awkwardness. But Paul D has second thoughts
about his desire for her, now that he has been intimate with

her. Her back is not a tree but rather just a "revolting clump of
scars." He thinks about Brother, his name for his favorite tree Part 1, Chapter 3
at Sweet Home, and Sixo, his best friend there and another of
the male slaves. "Now there was a man, and that was a tree,"
he thinks. Summary
Sethe, similarly, begins to think Baby Suggs was right in having Denver recalls a time when she left her safe place in the
told her "maybe a man was nothing but a man." She is woods, a ring of five boxwood bushes that form a little room.
disappointed in herself for having allowed Paul D to take some She returns home to find an apparition in a white dress
of the weight off her shoulders and then disturb her house. She kneeling down with its sleeve around her mother. This vision
remembers Halle, her husband, and contrasts her six years of prompts Denver to recall the story of her birth.
marriage to him with Baby Suggs's life. Baby Sugg's eight
children had six fathers, and all of the kids had been sold, When Sethe was pregnant with Denver, she fled Sweet Home.
except for Halle. Sethe recalls her wedding night with Halle in a A white girl in a white dress named Amy Denver found Sethe
cornfield; Paul D thinks about eating the corn from the broken half dead in the woods. She took her to a lean-to and
stalks afterward, its silk "fine and loose and free." massaged her swollen feet. Then she helped Sethe deliver her
daughter, whom she named Denver, in a boat by the river.
Analysis Denver remembers telling her mother about the white dress
and then asking about what happened at Sweet Home. Sethe
The brief hope that Paul D and Sethe have for each other tells Denver only that she can never go back there.
quickly turns into disillusionment. Now put off by rather than Schoolteacher—who, readers learn, was Mr. Garner's brother-
attracted to the tree on Sethe's back, Paul remembers the in-law and whom Mrs. Garner brought to the plantation after
trees at Sweet Home. In his mind he describes the farm as if it the death of Mr. Garner—used to write about the slaves in his
were Eden. The physical beauty of the place is a contrast to book. This "tore up" Sixo, one of the enslaved men on the
the brutal ugliness the slaves faced. The term men is used plantation. Sethe stops speaking, and Denver reflects that the
several times, bringing to mind the theme of loss of identity. baby "got plans" for them. Denver is lonely, missing the baby's
Could slaves, who were mere property, ever be considered ghost.
men? The plot will show that, while Sweet Home's first master,
Back in the present day, Sethe smiles, remembering Denver's
Mr. Garner, considered his male slaves men, the overseer
interpretation of the white dress and wondering what it all
schoolteacher quickly began to brutalize them. In fact, the
means. Perhaps it's okay to feel something, to count on Paul D,
cornsilk is the first of many objects and animals on the
she thinks. The last colors she remembers are red baby's
plantation to be described as freer than the slaves.
blood and a pink gravestone.
Sethe feels fortunate to have been married to the father of all

Paul D recollects his life on a chain gang and remembers some
her children—a human dignity that her mother-in-law, Baby
of the songs he sang then. He can't sing them at 124; they are
Suggs, had been denied. Sethe has experienced powerful
"too loud, had too much power" for the house. He asks Sethe if
feelings of love and motherhood in bitter conflict with her life
he can stay on and look for work, and she agrees. Paul D is
as a slave.
worried about Denver's reaction, but Sethe assures him that
Both Sethe and Paul D remember some of their time at Sweet Denver will always be fine because she has a charmed life.
Home, under the Garners, with something approaching

nostalgia. Mr. Garner's relatively benign treatment of his slaves,
allowing them to marry and letting Halle work to buy his
Analysis
mother's freedom, is like a cruel trap that keeps the enslaved
The green trees of the woods are Denver's salvation, where
people on the plantation without giving them true freedom.
she can leave the chaos of the haunted house behind. When
she arrives home, however, this feeling is dashed as she sees
another apparition. The vision of the ghost helping her mother

reminds Denver of the story of her own miraculous birth. The

memory foreshadows the moment when the women of
Analysis
Bluestone Road will band together to help Sethe and Denver
Again the reader is reminded of the power of maternal love and
rid their house of the ghost. Denver, who has never known
of the dangers that love holds for those who have been
slavery, can see that memories help keep some people alive;
enslaved. Denver is already trying to come between Sethe and
Sethe can only repress hers.
Paul D and cast out Paul D, just as he has cast out her only
When Denver asks about what happened at Sweet Home, companion. Yet the tone of the rest of the chapter is hopeful.
Sethe abruptly stops; her memories are too painful. In this As they walk to the carnival, Sethe sees an omen in their
chapter Sethe uses the term rememory for remembering; the shadows holding hands. Even Denver, pleased by the attention
word will recur throughout the novel as characters struggle to she gets from others, feels that Paul D might be a positive
keep their memories locked inside. Sethe's deep maternal influence in their lives. Morrison provides a glimpse of the life
instincts and her desperation to protect Denver is at the the characters might have had without the physical
forefront of her effort not to remember. Sethe is determined to manifestation of Beloved, who will appear in the next chapter.
keep Denver shielded from the past; this is all that matters to
The carnival also gives the reader a glimpse of how racially
her. The ghost of Sethe's baby is a symbol of rememory. It is
divided Cincinnati is, despite the fact that Ohio was a free
so strong that Sethe is "oblivious to the loss of anything at all,"
state. Sethe, Paul D, Denver, and their neighbors attend on the
even her sons.
day set aside for "coloredpeople." They ignore the insults of
the carnival performers for the sake of seeing "whitefolks
making a spectacle of themselves."
Part 1, Chapter 4
Part 1, Chapter 5
Summary
Denver asks Paul D how long he is going to stay, which causes
him to ask Sethe if he should leave. Even Sethe is surprised by
Summary
how loudly she shouts, "No!" Sethe admonishes Denver and
A woman of 19 or 20 walks from the stream near 124 and sits
tells her to stay quiet. Paul D wants to know if Denver has
down, leaning against a tree "all day and all night" as her wet
asked the same question of other men who have come to her
dress dries. In the morning she goes through the woods and
house, which angers Sethe. She tells Paul D to leave Denver
Denver's boxwood playhouse to sit on a stump near 124's
alone. He thinks it is dangerous for any former slave to love a
steps.
child as much as Sethe loves Denver.
When the three arrive home from the carnival, the strange
They argue over Denver, and Paul D says he hopes there is
woman is sitting in the yard. Sethe sees her face and
room for him in Sethe's heart. He tells her that he will catch her
immediately feels the need to urinate, which reminds her of her
before she falls and that he believes they can make a life
water breaking when Denver was born. The woman says she is
together. Sethe watches their shadows holding hands as the
thirsty and immediately drinks cup after cup of water. Paul D
three walk to the carnival. She believes it is a good sign. The
asks the woman her name; she replies in a raspy voice,
carnival is exciting, and Paul D is delighted. Denver is pleased
"Beloved." They all wonder why she is there. Paul D begins to
with the kind attention people are showing her. It is a single
question her, but then stops. He knows how many former
incident in which the three characters have a sense of what a
slaves have wandered without direction after the war, and he is
normal family life might be for them.
puzzled by the rootless woman's soft skin and hands and new
shoes. Sethe, however, feels kindly toward her because of her
name, while Denver just shakes.
Beloved sleeps for four days, asking only for water. Denver

nurses her with such dedication that she forgets to eat. Her of Mrs. Garner giving her the diamonds as a gift, when she
mother admonishes her, and Denver tells her to leave them "married" Halle at age 14.
alone. Meanwhile, Sethe wonders where their dog, Here Boy,
has gone. Denver says she just knows he won't be back. In response to Beloved's question about Sethe's mother, she
Beloved has nowhere to go, so she stays, moving around tells about the brand mark on her mother's body. She did not
slowly, resting her head in her palm "as though it was too heavy see the mark when she found her mother's body hanging from
for a neck alone." Paul D thinks there is "something funny 'bout a tree. A woman named Nan had yanked Sethe away. She told
that gal." He knows that she isn't really sick. He tells Sethe that the girl that she was the only child her mother had kept, giving
he saw Beloved pick up the rocking chair with one hand. her the name of her black father. Denver listens to the story,
Denver, however, contradicts this story, even though she has hating it because it has nothing to do with her. She has a
witnessed it. puzzling thought: how did Beloved know about the earrings?
Analysis Analysis
The woman named Beloved causes a strange reaction in The story of Sethe and Halle's "wedding" shows that the
Sethe. She immediately has to urinate, "breaking" her water by Garners felt some kindness toward their slaves. However,
the outhouse door as if she is about to give birth. The woman's Sethe and Halle were not given a true wedding, demonstrating
link to Sethe's dead baby is established before readers know again that even the "benevolent" Garners did not give their
her name. Paul D begins to question her but stops. In his mind, slaves the rights and privileges of whites.
the loss of identity experienced by those who have been

As Denver wonders how Beloved knew about Sethe's diamond
enslaved could have been powerful enough to create her
earrings, readers see a clear link between Beloved and Sethe's
extreme rootlessness.
murdered baby. Beloved continues to force Sethe to
Denver immediately takes to Beloved. She cares for her as one remember the past Sethe had previously buried. The story of
would care for an infant. She is so involved, she loses what the branding and hanging of Sethe's mother exemplifies the
little she has of her sense of self. She even forgets to visit her theme of lost identity for enslaved people, as do her mother's
"emerald closet" of boxwood bushes. Denver is adamant that memories of being raped on the voyage to America. Sethe's
she and Beloved be left alone. Her lie about Beloved's strength memories of her early childhood are also complicated by the
widens the gap between Denver and Paul D. The reader sees fact that Nan spoke to her in a language she no longer
Denver's desperation for companionship; perhaps Beloved can remembers, leaving her "picking meaning out of a code she no
take the place of all the siblings she has lost. longer understood."
Is Beloved a real person, the incarnation of the dead baby, or a Denver hates the stories Sethe is telling because they don't
ghost? Morrison will never answer this question. The character involve her own past. The only story she ever wants to hear is
is portrayed in this chapter as "born yesterday," but she has no the one about her birth. She resents Beloved's constant
memory and seems to be trying to get used to having a body. questions that conjure stories from Sethe's past. At the same
time, readers see that confronting her repressed memories
might help Sethe to one day free herself from them.
Part 1, Chapter 6
Part 1, Chapter 7
Summary
Beloved is entranced by Sethe. Out of nowhere she asks Summary
where Sethe's diamonds are. Sethe is so amazed that she
wants to tell Beloved about her past, which she and Baby Paul D has strange feelings about Beloved. He wonders why
Suggs had agreed was "unspeakable." Sethe reveals the story Sethe and Denver accept her so readily and unquestioningly

when, after five weeks, they still don't know anything about her. reader may notice that the relationship between Denver and
Paul D addresses a barrage of questions to Beloved about how Beloved has aspects of a familial, sister-to-sister relationship.
she got to their home. She tells him that, when she was at the
bridge, someone told her about "this place." Eventually Beloved It angers Sethe to learn that Halle witnessed the boys abusing
becomes frustrated by the questions Paul D asks her. She her in the barn. Even though Halle was broken by this sight,
feels that she alone should do the questioning but should never Sethe feels he should have come down from the loft, helped
have to answer questions herself. Denver finally rescues her her somehow, or that he should at least have said something to
from Paul D's interrogation and wins a smile from Beloved. her. But she sees him with his face covered with butter
representing his guilt and despair over the milk the boys took
Paul D decides to try to find another place for Beloved to stay. from her. The distress all three of them went through that day
As he thinks about it, Beloved chokes on a raisin and is once supports Sethe's concept of rememory. Although Sethe, Halle,
more rescued by Denver, who takes her to her own room. "I and Paul D each thought they were alone, they in fact shared in
can watch out for you up there," Denver says. When they are a connected suffering made worse by their individual isolation.
gone, Sethe asks Paul D why he is so vexed by Beloved. It's
just "a feeling," he says, but Sethe doesn't accept that. She
asks him to consider how Beloved feels and why she shouldn't Part 1, Chapter 8
be made to justify her right to a bed to sleep in.
Sethe and Paul D talk about Halle, with whom Sethe is angry
because he left his children. Paul D tells her that Halle
Summary
witnessed what happened to Sethe in the barn when the boys
Just a few minutes after Beloved was choking on the raisin,
took her milk and that it broke him. When Paul D saw him for
she and Denver are in Denver's room dancing. When they
the last time, Halle had butter all over his face. Sethe is bitter
finally collapse on the bed, Denver asks Beloved what it was
that her husband saw the cruelty and did nothing to stop it.
like "over there, where you were before?" Beloved explains
Paul D relates details about what happened to him that day,
that it was dark and hot, and there was "no room to move."
something he has never told anyone. He was watching
There were many people there, including some who were
roosters and in particular Mister, the meanest of them, walking
dead. She tells Denver that she came back to see Sethe's face,
around freely while Paul D was chained with a horse bit in his
whereupon Denver feels slighted and reminds Beloved of a
mouth. He doesn't tell the rest of the story but chooses to keep
time when they played together by a stream. Beloved
it locked up in the "tobacco tin buried in his chest."
remembers seeing diamonds in the stream, but she didn't
touch them because Sethe left her. Denver pleads with
Analysis Beloved not to leave them now, to which Beloved responds

that she will never leave them: "This is where I am." Thinking
Paul D is suspicious of Beloved, but it's not entirely clear why. what this story might mean to Sethe, Denver tells Beloved not
Her expression of "petlike adoration" prompts Paul D to to tell Sethe who she really is. Beloved responds by warning
question her. Is it her weakness or neediness that makes him Denver to never tell her what to do.
resentful, that confuses his understanding? She tells him she

Still alone in the room, Beloved asks Denver to tell her how
came from the bridge, looking for a place she "could be in."
Sethe delivered Denver in a boat, and a long story ensues.
Paul D interprets this to mean that she is like many ex-slaves
Sethe had run away from Sweet Home after her beating and
he knows. Like him, they are looking for a place "to be." To the
was found by Amy Denver, a white indentured servant girl who
reader the bridge could be a crossing point between this world
was also running away but who claimed she was traveling to
and the supernatural world—another sign that Beloved could
Boston to purchase some carmine (crimson) velvet. Amy cared
be the incarnation of Sethe's dead baby.
for Sethe, rubbing her feet and placing spiderwebs on her
The reader also gets another glimpse of Beloved's strange wounds. When Sethe could walk, they descended to the river
power, especially over Denver. The choking incident effectively where they found an old boat.
stops Paul D's questions and all talk of her being banished. The
Sethe's water broke at just that moment, and Amy helped with

the delivery. Sethe and Amy thought the baby was dead, but, day she and Denver arrived at 124 Bluestone Road. She
when Amy started humming, she started to move again. Amy remembers when Stamp Paid ferried her and Denver across
declared that she had to keep moving but she wanted Sethe to the Ohio River to freedom and how Ella picked her up and took
make sure she told the baby that Miss Amy Denver of Boston her to Baby Suggs's place, where Baby Suggs washed her and
brought her into the world. "That's pretty, Denver. Real pretty," cared for the baby. Sethe remembers how it felt to "wake up at
Sethe thought. dawn and decide what to do with the day."
Upon reaching the Clearing, Sethe sits on Baby Suggs's rock,

Analysis and she feels her fingers soothing the back of her neck. She
thinks about the life she and Paul D could have together and
Denver's question to Beloved about where she came from believes that "her story was bearable because it was his as
reveals that she knows Beloved is the ghost of her murdered well—to tell, to refine, and tell again." Suddenly Sethe feels as if
sister. Beloved's answer is vague, but the reader may interpret she is being strangled, and Denver and Beloved rush to help
her story as a description of the Middle Passage, when slaves her. At first Sethe thinks that Baby Suggs had been strangling
were brought from Africa. This foreshadows Beloved's her, but Denver denies it, and on reflection she remembers
narration of her journey into the world, coming in a later Baby Sugg's familiar soothing hands and knows it was not her.
chapter. It also ties her to the experiences of all slaves and to Then Sethe remembers the soothing touches Beloved
the suffering they endured. administered after she and Denver had come to her rescue;
they were "exactly like the baby's ghost" who had haunted 124
Denver is jealous that Beloved is so attached to Sethe and is for so long.
afraid that, if Sethe really knows who Beloved is, she will lose
her dependence on Denver. She uses storytelling to create a When they return home, Sethe gives her attention to Paul D,
net that will keep Beloved connected to her. determined to "launch her newer, stronger life" with him. But
this new dedication upsets Beloved, who misses every hour
Amy Denver is a symbol of hope, and her quest for carmine apart from Sethe. In one moment of anguish, Beloved runs to
velvet reveals her search for a better life, a quest shared by the stream where Denver finds her and confronts her for
Sethe when the two meet. She treats Sethe with rough choking Sethe in the Clearing. Beloved denies it and warns her
kindness, frequently belittling Sethe, but at the same time again to watch out. When Beloved runs away, Denver sits,
saving her life and delivering her baby. In naming her baby thinking about when she learned from Lady Jones. It was a
Denver, Sethe preserves the memory of a white person who happy time until Nelson Lord asked her if her mother had gone
helped her. to jail for murder and if she remembered being in jail with her.
Denver posed the question to her mother and went deaf rather
than hear the answer. The first thing she heard after two years
Part 1, Chapter 9 of silence was the ghost of the baby crawling up the stairs. It
was then that life at 124 became full of spite. Wondering what
she might do if Beloved really tries to kill her mother, Denver
Summary decides that she would choose Beloved. Sethe, watching them,
realizes that the two look like sisters.
Sethe decides it is time to take Baby Suggs's advice and "to lay
it all down" and find peace. She reminisces about how her
mother-in-law made everyone welcome at 124 and how she Analysis
used to call people to the Clearing to tell them to love their
This chapter raises questions about what caused Baby
own flesh. Sethe now longs for a sign from Baby Suggs, telling
Suggs's collapse. She had been a prominent figure in the
her what she should do about Paul D, Denver, and Beloved. In
community, teaching her neighbors that, as human beings, they
search of reassurance from her mother-in-law, Sethe calls
were worthy of love and happiness. But after Sethe murdered
Denver and Beloved and they go to the Clearing. As they walk,
her daughter, she found herself shunned, isolated, and
Sethe recalls how she crossed the river and came to Baby
depressed.
Suggs. She believes that Baby Suggs's collapse started the

Guilt is another prominent theme in this chapter, as the

characters and the reader try to untangle the mystery of who
Analysis
tried to strangle Sethe in the Clearing and why. Sethe feels
The brutality of slavery is once again shown in Paul D's
guilty for having caused Baby Suggs to collapse, while Denver
memories of the chain gang. The men suffered extreme abuse
knows it was Beloved who was choking her mother. The reader
and lived under the constant threat of death at the whim of the
must confront the difficult question of whether Sethe's actions
guards. Finally, they escaped only by working together. This
can be justified or excused. The strangling incident is also
sense of community was important while they were slaves but
emblematic of Sethe's memories, which will continue to
was even more so as they worked together to escape. Paul D's
strangle her until she comes to terms with them.
experience helps the reader understand why being shunned by
Baby Suggs's conviction that "there was no bad luck in the their community has such a negative effect on Sethe, Baby
world but white people" has a different meaning for Denver. Suggs, and Denver.
The white person who ruined her life was Nelson Lord, with his
The trees Paul D follows north symbolize the hope of freedom,
question about her mother, because the answer to her
and they stand in contrast to the tree on Sethe's back, which
question brought the wrath of the baby's ghost. It also isolated
came from the brutality of slavery.
Denver from the community, leaving her desperately lonely.
When Denver decides to choose Beloved over her mother, her Paul D has no sense of direction in his life. His experience on
desperation for companionship is taken to a new level. She is the chain gang almost killed his desire for life and his belief in
afraid of her mother's power over Beloved and will do anything the possibility of a better future. He wanders around aimlessly,
to keep Beloved to herself. afraid to become attached to any person or place. He believes
that to love anyone is dangerous, an effect of his experiences
as a slave. As he rambles, he begins to repress the memories
Part 1, Chapter 10 of his brutal slave life. The reader gets a sense that he has
been looking for Sethe all his life, when he finally greets her at
124.
Summary
Chapter 10 represents a flashback to the time when Paul D Part 1, Chapter 11
was forced to work on a chain gang after trying to kill the new
master schoolteacher sold him to. The men on the chain gang
slept in wooden boxes that were sunk into a deep ditch a Summary
thousand feet long. After 86 days it began to rain, and it kept
raining for days until the men could not work. Chained Paul D is gradually moving out of 124. He ends up sleeping in
together, they lived day and night in their wooden boxes until the storeroom, where Beloved visits him and coerces him into
one day the ditch caved in. Diving under the bars of their cage having sex with her. She tells him that she loves no one but
doors, the convicts escaped. The entire gang made it to a Sethe. Paul D is convinced that his tobacco tin, in which he
Cherokee village, where their chains were cut off. keeps his worst memories, is rusted shut and that she can't
harm him. As she moves toward him, Paul D doesn't hear the
Paul D asked the Cherokee how he would get north, to be free.
sound of the flakes of rust that fall away from it. When the lid
The Cherokee pointed and told Paul D to "follow the tree
opens, he is not aware. As he has sex with Beloved, he begins
flowers," and he followed the blossoms all the way to
saying, "Red heart. Red heart."
Delaware. Along the way he locked up his bitter memories "into
a tobacco tin lodged in his chest." By the time he arrived at 124,
"nothing in this world could pry it open."
Analysis
Beloved wants Sethe completely to herself, but her wish is
thwarted as long as Paul D is in the picture. To change that

scenario, she visits him in the storeroom and manipulates him their focus, and she tells Denver that she sees a face and that
into having sex with her, which she expects will drive a wedge it is herself.
between him and Sethe. While her ploy works, it has the
perhaps unintended consequence of breaking the rust loose
and beginning to open the "tin box" in which Paul D had locked Analysis
away all his dreadful memories. The event forces him to
confront those memories. Sethe's explanation of what she thinks happened to Beloved
again shows the brutality of slavery, of how white men could do
When he calls out "red heart," it is a reference to Chapter 7, anything they wanted to their slaves. Denver doesn't believe
when the author says that the tin box was "buried in his chest her mother's story because she knows the truth: that Beloved
where a red heart used to be." Calling out "Red heart. Red is the baby ghost who used to keep Sethe company. Beloved
heart" suggests that he is beginning to heal. Beloved entices and Denver share common goals and needs: they both crave
Paul D into betraying Sethe, but in doing so she gives him attention, are jealous of Paul D, and want him to leave. But
something that will eventually make him stronger. Beloved needs Sethe, not Denver. And Denver tries to occupy
both women's attention, to keep them from connecting with
each other and leaving her out.
Part 1, Chapter 12
Beloved has a different relationship with each person in the
house. She offers her body to Paul D, awakening his lust. To
Denver she is like a sister; they are both companions and rivals.
Summary Beloved is a replacement for the daughter Sethe lost. But the
roles are mixed up. Sethe should be Paul's lover, and Denver
Denver wrestles with her relationship with Beloved: she craves
should have a stronger mother-daughter relationship with
her attention and only occasionally gets it, and then
Sethe.
unexpectedly. But, when Beloved does bestow her attention on
Denver, it is "lovely." She doesn't try for more because she At the end of the chapter, Beloved reveals more details about
fears pushing Beloved further from her. Sethe, meanwhile, has the dark place from which she came. Again, this can be read as
taken on the task of asking Beloved about her past and what symbolic of the Middle Passage. She convinces Denver that
she remembers. Does she have any memories of her mother? she does not want to go back there again.
Beloved replies that she remembers having been snatched
from "a woman who was hers" but otherwise nothing much
except the bridge. Sethe tells Denver that she believes
Beloved had been locked up by a white man who used her for
Part 1, Chapter 13
his sexual needs and that Beloved has wiped her memory
clean. Denver doesn't believe the story; she knows that
Beloved is the white dress that knelt beside her mother—the
Summary
real-life presence of the baby's ghost.
Paul D recalls thinking that he was one of only five blacks in
One day Denver asks Beloved to help her get the cider jug Kentucky who were "men" because Garner had trusted them
from the cold room. Once inside the door closes, leaving them and listened to their opinions. It was schoolteacher who
in complete darkness. Denver panics when Beloved won't showed them the truth—that they were slaves and their
answer her, and she rushes to the door, opens it, and finds that opinions didn't matter to a white man. He once thought that
Beloved has disappeared. She doesn't want to go through schoolteacher was wrong; now he isn't so sure. If he is a man,
being abandoned again after having been left behind by her how can Beloved have such control over him? He needs
brothers and Baby Suggs. Suddenly Beloved is standing before Sethe's help to break the spell, and he decides to tell her that
her, and Denver is elated. She tells Beloved that she feared she he has been having sex with Beloved and ask for her help in
had gone back, but Beloved tells her that she doesn't want that breaking free.
place; she is here now. As she talks her eyes suddenly sharpen
Ready to make his confession and see what happens, Paul D

meets Sethe as she is leaving her work at the restaurant. At losing an arm, a hand, a toe. Denver watches her and asks why
that critical moment, he loses confidence and says what wasn't she doesn't cry. At that, Beloved begins to cry and hopes that
on his mind: he wants her to have his child. It wasn't the Denver's arms around her will keep her from falling apart.
solution he had planned, but it was a way to hold onto Sethe
while breaking Beloved's spell over him. When they arrive
home, Sethe comes to his rescue by asking him to sleep Analysis
upstairs with her.
This chapter reveals two paradoxical aspects of Beloved. On
Sethe ponders why Paul D wants to have a child with her. She the one hand, readers see that her hold on life is tenuous: she
decides he does not want to share her with the girls—that he pulls a tooth out and fears that she is falling apart. Will she
resents her children. She realizes she is building a case against gradually come apart and once again become a haunting
getting pregnant: she has all the children she needs. She presence or just a memory? On the other hand, losing the
recognizes that she has been dreaming of Beloved's face for wisdom tooth is typically seen as a step toward growing up.
years and acknowledges to herself that she believes Beloved When she learns to cry—an act that comes naturally and
is her dead child come back to her. instinctively to most humans—it suggests that she is becoming
more substantial and taking on more of the life of a person.
Analysis
In this chapter Paul D questions his manhood. He recalls the
Part 1, Chapter 15
kindness of Mr. Garner, his owner, who regarded him and the
other male slaves at Sweet Home as men. But this turned out
to be a mean trick, he decides, because they were men only
Summary
within the confines of Sweet Home; outside, they were just
In a flashback, the reader learns that, in the days after Sethe
slaves. Schoolteacher, a more malevolent slave owner, did not
and her children showed up at 124, Baby Suggs was afraid to
believe he was a man. Now Paul D does not believe it either; if
celebrate until Halle showed up—"not wishing to hurt his
he were really a man, he could break his relationship with
chances by thanking God too soon." Then, 20 days after Sethe
Beloved. When he tries to confess his affair to Sethe, he again
arrived, Stamp Paid came by to see the baby and mother he
fails to be a man. Instead, he takes the coward's route, asking
had rescued. Inspired by something only he understood, he
her to have a child with him. This, however, has the effect he
went off to a hidden place and picked two buckets of
was hoping for: the spell Beloved has over him is broken, and
blackberries. Baby Suggs wanted to show her gratitude by
he still has Sethe.
making some pies. The celebration began to snowball, and,
Sethe begins to doubt his motives for wanting a child. She has when it was over, she had fed 90 people. After the party the
come to think of Beloved as her own child; she doesn't want guests became furious: they disapproved of the excess of her
more. The growing mother-child bond between Sethe and over-the-top generosity; "uncalled-for pride," they thought.
Beloved is becoming more evident. Baby Suggs, working in the garden, smelled the disapproval all
around her. Then she sensed something more—something
"dark and coming" and "high-topped shoes she didn't like the
Part 1, Chapter 14 look of."
Through another flashback deeper into the past, the reader

learns how Baby Suggs came to 124. She had hurt her hip and
Summary so became a bargain that Mr. Garner took advantage of. He
bought her and hauled her back to Kentucky, where Baby
After Paul D and Sethe go upstairs to bed, Beloved asks Suggs recalls "nobody knocked her down." She no longer had
Denver to make Paul D go away, but Denver is afraid Sethe will to work in the fields, instead helping Mrs. Garner cook and
be mad at Beloved if he leaves. Beloved pulls out a tooth and feed the chickens. Even so, her son Halle knew how much her
feels like she is falling apart—a feeling she has often had of

injured hip bothered her. This is why he worked extra hard and
bought her freedom.
Summary
Baby Suggs thought her freedom meant more to Halle than it As the flashback continues, four men come to 124:
ever would to her. When her feet touched land across the river, schoolteacher (the slave owner at Sweet Home who replaced
however, she discovered that he had known better than she Mr. Garner), his nephew, a slave catcher, and a sheriff. They
the joy and fullness of freedom. Readers then learn that Baby see a woman and an old man both staring at the woodshed.
Sugg's slave name was Jenny Whitlow, but she took her When they go in, they find two bleeding boys and a woman
husband's name, Suggs, and the name he called her, Baby, as holding a blood-soaked baby while swinging another baby,
her name as a freed slave. Friends of Mr. Garner helped Baby trying to smash it against the wall. Rushing through the door,
Suggs get settled, renting a house to her in exchange for the old man rescues the baby from the mother just in time.
sewing and doing laundry. She began a search for her children,
Schoolteacher thinks Sethe has gone wild, like an abused
a search she finally gave up as a lost cause. Ultimately, she
animal, made so by another nephew who overbeat her. He
only knew of Halle and his wife and children.
thinks that none of them—Sethe or her children—are any good
to him now and leaves. The sheriff attempts to arrest Sethe but
is interrupted by Baby Suggs, who enters the shed and
Analysis rescues the boys. Sethe will not give up the dead baby girl in
her arms. Meanwhile, the sheriff sends for a wagon.
Baby Suggs's reluctance to celebrate before Halle's return
shows the love bond between mother and child. She is too Baby Suggs gets everyone back into the house, cleans up the
used to the loss of family that most slaves endured and knows two boys, and binds their wounds. Then she gets Sethe to
she may never see her son again. She tempts fate by holding a exchange the dead baby she is holding for the living one who
celebration anyway. The next day her neighbors feel she is needs nursing. Baby takes the dead baby into the keeping
boasting about her good fortune and begin to resent her. room and then returns to find Sethe feeding the baby from a
nipple still covered in the blood of her sister. When the wagon
Baby Sugg's premonition of something "dark and coming" is a
arrives, Sethe, still holding Denver, climbs into the cart with the
foreshadowing of the central event of the novel: Sethe's
sheriff. Onlookers see the pride in the way Sethe holds her
murder of her child.
head, and they do not sing for her.
Readers will notice that Baby Suggs's story again undercuts
the notion that there can be any such thing as "good" slave
owners. Mr. Garner discovers only when he has freed her that Analysis
she calls herself Baby Suggs and not Jenny Whitlow, the name
written on her sales ticket when he bought her. How can this The opening words in this chapter—"When the four horsemen
be, unless he never asked her? He insists upon his came"—are an allusion to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse
magnanimity in allowing her son to buy her out of slavery, but who are described in the Bible in the book of Revelations. They
Baby Suggs knows that Mr. Garner will be renting Halle out for represent famine, war, pestilence, and death and, according to
years to come to pay for her freedom. She has already the Bible, will appear at the end of the world. It is an accurate
endured so much horror, she feels there is nothing left that can symbol for the arrival of schoolteacher, his nephew, the slave
hurt her emotionally. hunter, and the sheriff and for the events that follow.
This chapter can be considered the climax of the pieces of the

story of Sethe's past life, which are the memories she has been
Part 1, Chapter 16 determined to keep buried. The events described illustrate the
reality of the Fugitive Slave Law, which permitted slave owners
to hunt down escaped slaves—even those in free states—and
haul them back into slavery. In Sethe's case, schoolteacher
came for her and her children. The community, still resentful
for Baby Suggs's over-the-top celebration, did nothing to warn

Sethe. This resentment and the proud way Sethe carries her to be ruined. Even when Stamp Paid reads the words in the
herself explain why the community does not sing in support of article, Paul D continues to deny that Sethe could act in such
Sethe as the cart takes her away. an evil way. Sethe's past is beginning to surface.
Sethe's act of killing one child and attempting to kill the others
is a strong statement about the cruelty of slavery and a
mother's love: she would rather see her children dead than
Part 1, Chapter 18
enslaved. This one event brings the pieces of the puzzle
together. The reader now knows why Sethe fights the
memories of the past so vigorously. It also gives insight into the
Summary
reasons for the family's isolation and the collapse of Baby
Paul D confronts Sethe with the clipping, expecting her to
Suggs.
laugh, but instead Sethe explains what happened. She spins
around the room as she talks, making Paul D feel dizzy. She
Part 1, Chapter 17 wants to tell why she did it, something she has told to no one,
not even Baby Suggs.
Sethe begins by telling Paul D how proud she was after getting
Summary the children to safety. Paul D doesn't understand the depth of
the love she felt; he has always barely managed to protect
Paul D is looking at a photograph in a newspaper clipping, himself and "loved small." Sethe tries to describe the selfish
saying, "That ain't her mouth." He can't read, but he knows it pleasure of freedom. She tells him that "I couldn't let all that go
does not give good news. Stamp Paid begins to tell him about back to where it was," so she had to stop schoolteacher and
what happened in the shed the day schoolteacher came to put her children where they would be safe.
124. Paul D is still insisting that it is not Sethe's mouth, so
Stamp Paid does not tell him the rest of the story. When Paul D tells Sethe that her "love is too thick," she tells
him, "Thin love ain't love at all." Paul D tells her that her plan
What he does not tell Paul D is how Sethe recognized the hat didn't work, but she disagrees; she kept her children from
of one of the four men, collected her children, and took them to going back to Sweet Home. Paul D replies that there must have
the woodshed, in which there was only a saw. Instead, Stamp been another way and that she has "two feet ... not four." Later
Paid reads the words written in the news story. Paul D only he wonders why he said that, after quietly leaving without really
says that it is a mistake because that isn't Sethe's mouth. saying good-bye.
Stamp Paid almost wonders if it happened at all.
Analysis
Analysis
Again, the reader sees the intense love of a mother and how
The theme of this chapter is expressed in the beginning, as it that love was ruined by slavery. That she wants to tell Paul D
describes the old Native American burial ground Paul D passes why she killed one daughter and tried to kill her other children
through on his way home from his work at the slaughterhouse. shows she has deep feelings for him. She is afraid to tell him
The long history of brutality, loss, and restless spirits in this everything, for fear of losing him, but she knows it is time to
land is indicated even before Paul D is made aware of Sethe's unbury the memories of the past so that they can move on and
tragedy. Paul D doesn't want to believe what Stamp Paid is have a future together. She loves all her children so much that
telling him about Sethe. To him, the Sethe in the article is very she would rather they die than return to slavery. This is a
different from the woman he knew at Sweet Home. potent testament to the terrors slaves endured.
He tells Stamp Paid that it couldn't have been Sethe in the Paul D has never loved anyone or anything so fiercely, so he
picture, even if he knows that it must be her. Paul D also does doesn't understand Sethe's desperation. For him a love that
not want his feelings for Sethe and the chance for a future with made her willing to kill her children was too strong. By saying

she has "two feet ... not four," he suggests she acted like an she believes Baby Suggs was right: they are all bad luck. She
animal. With these words Paul D participates in the remembers how schoolteacher measured her with a string and
dehumanizing character of slavery, a point of irony, because he how she overheard him telling his students to "put her human
himself felt that Mister, the rooster, had more self-autonomy characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right." This
than he did. His comment is especially hurtful to Sethe, and her was just one form of cruelty that appeared at Sweet Home
fears are realized: Paul D leaves her. under schoolteacher. Sixo and Halle made a plan for all of
them to escape, but the plan went awry; Sethe and the children
were the only ones who got out.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Stamp Paid believes the noises coming from 124 are
mumblings of the angry dead slaves. He contemplates that
white people believed that "under every dark skin was a
Summary jungle." He believes that, in a way, they are right, even if it was
the cruelty of the whites that planted that jungle. Finally, after
Stamp Paid hears loud voices as he approaches 124. He feels
no one comes to the door when he does finally knock, Stamp
responsible for Paul D moving out and has come to check on
Paid gives up trying to see Sethe, and the women in 124 are
Sethe and Denver. Stamp Paid feels particularly responsible
left to themselves.
for Denver after having rescued her from her mother in the
woodshed. He has entered 124 only one time since that
dreadful event, but he cannot bring himself to knock on the
Analysis
door. He tries over and over in the days to come.
Once again the author focuses on the theme of the brutality

Meanwhile, Sethe is trying to "lay it all down" as Baby Suggs
and dehumanization of slavery. Stamp Paid calls Sethe's
suggested. She finds ice skates and takes the girls to a frozen
unspeakable act "the Misery" because it is a direct
creek, where they fall and laugh and have a good time. At the
consequence of the Fugitive Slave Act that permitted
end, after the laughter has died away, Sethe cries in earnest.
schoolteacher to appear at Baby Suggs's house and that
Back at 124 Beloved is humming. Sethe hears a click; she
caused Sethe to try to kill her children.
recognizes the song as one she had made up and sung to her
children when they were babies. Sethe is at peace because Stamp Paid had great respect for Baby Suggs, which is why he
she knows Beloved is her dead daughter who has come back tries so hard to make things right with Sethe. His problem is
to life. that his pride gets in the way when he has to knock at Sethe's
door. When he finally overcomes this obstacle and knocks, he
Stamp Paid recalls a conversation with Baby Suggs sometime
is ignored and gives up his efforts. Stamp Paid has been the
after Sethe had killed her child. She had stopped going to the
only remaining link between the women of 124 and the outside
Clearing, and Stamp Paid had tried to persuade her to go back,
community, and his abandonment feels ominous.
but without any success. After all those years, Stamp Paid
finally understood that Baby Suggs was simply tired out. She The narrator repeats the line "Nobody saw them falling" as a
could neither excuse nor condemn Sethe's choice to kill her foreshadowing of events to come. Eventually, the three women
children. Doing one or the other might have saved her, but she do fall into complete despair, even though Sethe is both tired
couldn't decide, so she went to bed and thought about colors. and optimistic. She wants nothing more to do with people, even
"The whitefolks had tired her out at last," Stamp Paid realizes. those who she has seen as "good." She is hopeful that the
three women can have a life together inside 124.
Sethe decides to live peacefully with her two remaining
children, not caring about or remembering anything. Still her Sethe's crime makes Stamp Paid think that slave owners are
mind is filled with memories. She recalls the baby's funeral and right: blacks are wild like animals in the jungle, capable of even
how all she heard were the words Dearly Beloved and how, for unspeakable crimes. But he realizes that it was the whites, by
10 minutes of sex with the gravestone carver, she had one treating them so brutally and inhumanely in the first place, who
word—Beloved—etched on her baby's tombstone. Sethe made them uncivilized. And through their treatment of the
recalls how trusting she used to be of white people, but now

slaves, the whites became inhumane themselves. A vicious Sethe went crazy when schoolteacher appeared, out of fear
circle of dehumanization has been set in motion. that her children will have to return to Sweet Home. But Sethe
makes it clear that she had a plan to keep them safe. It was a
plan conceived out of the love only a mother knows to keep
Part 2, Chapter 20 them safe, even if they were dead, from an even worse fate.
Sethe makes an ironic revelation: "if I hadn't killed her she

would have died and that is something I could not bear to
Summary happen to her." The reader can see that Sethe is convinced
that her daughter has come back to her "in the flesh." Beloved
Sethe believes that her baby daughter has come back to her in
is standing right in front of her. She vows to love her like no
the flesh. In her mind, she explains to Beloved why she killed
other mother has ever loved a child, an obsession that begins
her. The explanation includes relating events at Sweet Home
to overwhelm her.
that led to her escape and all the events that followed. It
began, she recalls, when she told Mrs. Garner about the
nephews abusing her. When schoolteacher found out that she
told, Sethe was beaten so severely that she bit off part of her
Part 2, Chapter 21
tongue.
Sethe remembered taking care of Mrs. Garner when she heard Summary
gunshots. She brought her children to the woman waiting in the
cornfield to receive them, then went back to look for Halle, In this chapter Denver takes her turn at sharing her thoughts
though she never saw him again. and feelings with the reader. Denver begins by acknowledging
that Beloved is her sister and that she swallowed her sister's
After Sethe made her own way to Baby Suggs's, helped by blood along with her mother's milk. The first thing she heard
Amy Denver, schoolteacher later tried to reclaim her and her after her deafness was the ghost of the baby crawling up the
children. But she refused to let her children go back to slavery stairs. From that day forward, a special bond has grown
and intended to kill them and herself. But that plan also went between them.
awry; Beloved was the only one who died. After Sethe bought
the gravestone for Beloved, she wanted to lie in the grave with Denver confesses that she is afraid of her mother. She
the baby, but she knew she couldn't because her other children watches over the yard for whatever it is that comes from
needed her. Now that Beloved has returned to her, Sethe can outside that made her mother kill her sister. That way her
finally "sleep like the drowned, have mercy." mother won't have to kill her too. Denver fears losing Beloved;
she must keep her mother away from her. She wants to warn
Beloved not to love their mother too much.
Analysis
Denver remembers all the things Baby Suggs told her about
This is the first in a series of chapters that gives the reader her father, Halle. He "was an angel man," she was told, because
direct insight into the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the he was always helping people. Now Denver is waiting for her
three women living in 124. Each is written in a literary style father so they can all be together: her, Beloved, and her father.
called stream of consciousness, in which the character Her mother can leave with Paul D, if she wants. She really
expresses a continuous, seemingly random flow of thoughts. doesn't care, but she is glad Paul D is gone.
Chapter 20 gives readers insights into Sethe's history and

feelings. She begins by expressing her belief that Beloved is Analysis
her own dead child returned to her from the grave, and it
reveals her growing obsession with this daughter. She doesn't This chapter provides a look into Denver's mental state.
have to explain anything to Beloved, but in her mind she Readers learn that her life is guided by four things: loneliness,
rehearses what she would say. The reader might think that fear, her love for Beloved, and her longing for her father. But

they all have a single origin: the Misery. Although Denver can't
remember that event, she has learned about it from her Part 2, Chapter 23
brothers and from the question posed by Nelson Lord about
her mother being in jail for murder. So she knows her mother is
capable of killing her. She is likewise afraid of the outside world Summary
because she knows something from out there caused her
mother to kill her sister and try to kill her. All these events have This chapter continues Beloved's stream-of-conscious
conspired to isolate Denver from the world. She lives with just narration as she recalls the dead men being shoved into the
Beloved and the mother she fears while she waits for her sea. Sethe also went into the sea, where Beloved tried to join
father, the "angel," to come and make life safe. her but couldn't move. Sethe was hidden behind clouds of gun
smoke. She lost Sethe three times.
Part 2, Chapter 22 There is a dialogue between Sethe, Beloved, and Denver.

Beloved says she has come from the other side. Sethe tells her
she loves her face and asks if she will stay. The men without
skin are gone; they tried to get in once, but Sethe stopped
Summary them and "they won't ever come back," Sethe promises.
Denver warns Beloved not to love Sethe too much. Sethe tells
In a stream of "baby talk," Beloved describes being one with her she will never leave Beloved again.
Sethe. She is crouching in cramped quarters with others, some
of whom are dead. Men with no skin give them food, but she
doesn't eat. They have little to drink. There are rats. She sees a Analysis
woman with a shackle around her neck and wants to bite it off.
The woman has her face. She doesn't want to be separated This chapter works on two levels. On one level it is about the
from the woman. But the woman leaves her; no one wants her. separation of Beloved from Sethe and Denver. On another it is
She sees the woman's face again, her own face, and follows about the separation of Africans from their native Africa—first,
her. She is not dead. She sees a house. The face is Sethe's, when they were enslaved and brought to America and, later,
and now they can be together. when they were separated from their families while in America.
The dialogue between the women shows the despair in which

Analysis they now live. In the repeated sentences, Sethe tries to assure
Beloved that she will never leave her again. She seems
The stream of consciousness this time is Beloved's. Using desperate to appease Beloved. At the same time, Denver is
disjointed phrases, like baby talk, she describes the horrifying frantic for Beloved's attention. Warning Beloved not to love
conditions she has endured. The reader has read some of Sethe too much has a twofold purpose: she is warning her
these phrases previously in the novel. The pictures she paints against Sethe, and at the same time she is trying to capture all
in this chapter are also symbolic of the Middle Passage—the of Beloved's love for herself. The structure of the narrative,
voyage Sethe's mother took. It is a link between Beloved and which has disintegrated into fragmented sentences, reflects
Sethe. Beloved describes crouching in a tightly cramped ship, the close intimacy the minds of these three characters are
with rats and dead people on top of her. These are true historic locked into. All three women try to make peace with the past,
memories of slavery that the author wants the reader be aware live peacefully in the present, and look toward the future.
of and never forget.
Beloved's thoughts toward the end of the chapter represent

her passage from one life to the next—from death back to life.
Part 2, Chapter 24
She was separated from her mother at death, but now she has
been brought back to her at 124.

as slave owners to use the slaves as they wished.

Summary
The failed escape of Sixo and Paul D is yet another illustration
Memories of the past come flooding back to Paul D as he sits of the cruelty of slavery. Sixo is burned because schoolteacher
on the front porch of the church where he has taken refuge does not believe he can be salvaged and put to good use as a
after moving out of Sethe's place. After Mr. Garner died, slave. When Sixo sings out in defiance, they shoot him, not to
schoolteacher took over management of Sweet Home, and the put him out of his misery but just to shut him up.
lives of Sethe, Paul D, and the other slaves were abruptly
altered for the worse. Now Paul D wonders if there was really Paul D is intrigued to learn he is worth $900. It is a
much of a difference between Mr. Garner and schoolteacher; dehumanizing experience to learn that his value can be
both were slave owners who did what they pleased. If they weighed in dollars and not by human qualities, such as his
called them men or broke them into children, did that change ability to love, value relationships, think, and care. Once more it
what they were? Paul D had always considered Halle and Sixo is a return to the theme of the loss of identity in slavery.
men; he is not so sure about his own manhood.
Paul D remembers how, after the Cherokee told him to follow

Part 2, Chapter 25
the tree blossoms, he never wanted to stay put—not until he
found Sethe, that is. He wanted to live a life with her and is
saddened that it will never happen.
Summary
He remembers trying to escape Sweet Home with Sixo, the
Thirty-Mile Woman, Halle, Sethe, and others. He and Sixo were Stamp Paid apologizes to Paul D because no one has taken
caught by schoolteacher and four other white men, but Thirty- him in and tells him he can stay with any black person in town.
Mile Woman escaped and Sethe did later on. Sixo was tied to a He offers his house, but Paul D wants to be alone. Stamp Paid
tree and burned, all the while laughing. He called out, "Seven- then relates the story of his name. His wife, Vashti, had been
O!" and was shot. Paul D overheard schoolteacher talking forced to sleep with their master's son, he explains, and one
about selling him for $900 and making Sweet Home "worth the night, when she returned to him, Stamp Paid wanted to break
trouble it was causing him." As they chained him up, Paul D her neck. Instead, he changed his name. He tells how he used
realized that Sixo was laughing because Thirty-Mile Woman to ferry fugitive slaves to freedom, declaring their debts paid
was carrying his child. Back at Sweet Home, in chains, Paul D also.
sees Sethe and tells her about Sixo. Sethe has gotten her
Stamp confesses that he was there when Sethe killed her
children out and will soon be leaving. Knowing he would never
baby. He tells Paul D that she wasn't crazy: "She was trying to
see Sethe again, his heart stops.
out-hurt the hurter." Paul D confides that he is afraid of Sethe
and the girl in the house. Stamp Paid becomes curious about
the girl and asks Paul D about her, but Paul D doesn't know
Analysis
much except that she just showed up. But then he adds, "She
reminds me of something, Something, look like, I'm supposed
Through this telling of Paul D's memories, the author develops
to remember."
the theme of past versus present. Paul D is having doubts
about what he felt was true about his past. The story of the
Stamp Paid asks Paul D if the girl is the reason he left 124. Paul
escape from Sweet Home has been told from the perspectives
D shudders and feels sick, and then he asks Stamp Paid how
of several different characters, each of whom expresses it
much a black person is supposed to take. Stamp Paid says
differently. Just like Paul D and Sethe, the reader gradually
they must take all they can. Paul D can only ask, "Why?"
sees the full horror of the story. Paul D once thought Garner
was a good person who treated the slaves as men, but then he
realizes that he and the others were foolish to think that.
Garner did not make them men anymore than schoolteacher
made them children. Both were simply exercising their power

ask for help, so she walks to Lady Jones's house. She asks her
Analysis for work, but Lady Jones tells her, if they need help, all she
needs to do is ask. Denver declines and leaves, but a couple
Stamp Paid wants to find a home where Paul D can live. It is a
days later baskets of food begin to appear on the stump in the
gesture borne of the sense of community of which Stamp Paid
backyard. Denver leaves 124 to thank each person who has
is a member, the black community of Cincinnati that looks after
helped, and her life broadens.
each other.
Denver tries to keep the household together, but, no matter
The story of Stamp Paid's name is symbolic of the way slave
what she does, life at home continues to deteriorate. Denver
owners controlled every aspect of slaves' lives, preventing
realizes that Sethe is trying to make up for what she did to
them from building ties of love and family. When a slave was
Beloved, and Beloved is making her pay for it. Yet she still fears
sold, the bill of sale was validated with a stamp, indicating the
Beloved will leave.
price paid. Stamp Paid's experience having his wife taken and
sexually used by his young white master was an almost Denver sees Nelson Lord leaving his grandmother's house. He
overwhelming sacrifice, and it gives him the feeling that all his tells her to take care of herself. The words open her mind, and
debts have been forever paid in full. He no longer owes anyone she decides to ask the Bodwins for a job. Denver tells the
anything. His new name is a way to separate himself from his Bodwins' maid, Janey Wagon, all about the trouble at 124, and
hurtful past. He helps other slaves to do the same by ferrying Janey offers to talk the Bodwins into taking on Denver as a
them to freedom. night servant.
Stamp Paid supports Sethe's story that she killed her child out Janey spreads the news to the other black women of
of love, even though he might have made a different choice Cincinnati, who band together and march toward 124. One of
himself. The reader may consider that Stamp Paid is able to them is Ella, who has also killed a child by refusing to nurse it.
love and care for Sethe when the rest of the community cannot Meanwhile, Mr. Bodwin is riding to 124 to pick up Denver for
because he understands what she did. Paul D's question work. When she hears the women outside, Sethe stops
reinforces the theme of past versus present and the painful breaking up ice, putting the ice pick in her pocket. She and
memories all slaves face. Stamp Paid tries to show Paul D, Beloved, who is naked, go to the doorway. The women see the
through his reply, that everyone must confront the past in "devil child" who has taken the form of a pregnant woman with
order to move on. Paul D is not quite ready to do this: his a dazzling smile.
repeated cries of "why?" spring from anger and anguish.
Sethe lowers her eyes to look at the praying women and sees
Mr. Bodwin in a wide-brimmed hat. Thinking he is
Part 3, Chapter 26 schoolteacher, she wildly runs toward him to attack him with
the ice pick. Beloved sees Sethe running away from her and
toward the women, leaving her alone. The others join Sethe
and form "a hill of black people, falling."
Summary
At 124 the three women are starving. Sethe and Beloved don't
care. It began when Sethe saw the scar on Beloved's neck.
Analysis
After that she began devoting herself to Beloved, ignoring
The theme of past versus present dominates this chapter.
Denver altogether, and going to work later and later each day
Sethe, wallowing in guilt for killing her baby, cannot do enough
until she was fired. At first they play games. Sethe will do
to make up for her sin as she coddles Beloved, spends lavishly
anything for Beloved; she buys her ribbons and fancy food with
on her, favors her above Denver and herself. Denver, starving
her last few dollars. Nothing is too good for her. But in time
and seeing the destruction wreaked by the past's influence on
Beloved begins complaining, accusing Sethe of having left her
the present, forces herself to seek help outside—a place she
behind. Sethe pleads for forgiveness, but Beloved becomes
has seldom been because, again, the past isolated her from
wild. Denver now feels she has to protect her mother from
the community. Now, finally, the present is catching up as
Beloved. Denver decides to go out into the neighborhood to

Denver goes out into the world and draws in the women of the
community to help. But the past remains potent: Sethe
Analysis
mistakes Mr. Bodwin for the feared and hated schoolteacher
Paul D's visit to 124 confirms Sethe's madness. Still consumed
and charges him with an ice pick.
with guilt, she obsesses over having made the ink for
The influence of the past can also be seen in the symbolism of schoolteacher that he used to classify her animal
the figurine Denver sees in Mr. Bodwin's kitchen. A caricature characteristics. In her mind, the ink caused all that has
of a black boy with the words At Yo Service written on its happened.
pedestal, the figurine symbolizes the degradation of black
Paul D takes charge in a loving but firm way. In a tender
people and their lives of unquestioning service as slaves.
memory, he is reminded of Sixo's feelings for the Thirty-Mile
Iironically, it sits in an abolitionist's kitchen.
Woman and projects this feeling to Sethe. Sethe is sad
because Beloved, her "best thing," has left her, but Paul D
insists that Sethe herself is her own best thing. She is free now
Part 3, Chapter 27 and can truly own herself. Together, she and Paul D have
relived the painful memories of the past, but he knows they
now need to look toward the future. In the effort to do so, they
Summary represent all freed slaves who were forced to do the same
thing.
Paul D and Stamp Paid return to 124. Here Boy, the aged family
dog, is back, so Paul D knows that Beloved is really gone.
Some of the women that had gathered at 124 say she Part 3, Chapter 28
exploded right in front of them. Stamp Paid says Mr. Bodwin is
going to sell 124, but he won't be pressing charges against
Sethe. Denver and Ella wrestled the ice pick away from Sethe
and saved his life. Paul D thinks Sethe has gone crazy. The
Summary
next morning Paul D meets Denver on the street, and she tells
The people of Bluestone Road forget Beloved "like a bad
Paul D that her mother is not all right. She thinks she has lost
dream." Sometimes they are reminded of her, but they choose
her. She warns him to be careful how he talks to her.
not to remember her because "they know things will never be
Paul D reflects on the years before he arrived in Cincinnati. He the same if they do." Footprints come and go by the stream of
recalls joining the army during the war, his escape from 124. Soon, all trace of Beloved is gone. "This is not a story to
Alabama as a free man, and his arrival in New Jersey, where he pass on."
earned and spent his first money. He wandered as a free man
for seven years before ending up in Ohio.
Analysis
Paul D walks to 124, opens the door, and notices the quiet. He
finds Sethe humming and lying under a colorful quilt. She The characters in the novel have been consumed with the past,
confesses her guilt for all that has happened because she preventing them from living in the present. This last chapter
"made the ink" for schoolteacher to use in his lessons. Paul D presents the community as a whole that has at last been able
tells Sethe that she has to get up and that he is going to take to knit itself together again, with 124 included. The people of
care of her. He remembers how Sixo felt about his Thirty-Mile Bluestone Road need to forget about Beloved in order to move
Woman: "She is a friend of my mind," he said, who helped put on. The author, however, does not want her readers to forget.
the pieces of him back together. Paul D realizes he feels the Morrison wants them to remember the horrors of slavery so
same for Sethe. He tells her, "We got more yesterday than that history will never repeat itself.
anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow."

Beloved Study Guide Quotes 28
Baby Suggs has collapsed and has given up on life. The slave
g Quotes master tried to reclaim Sethe and her children. Sethe tried to
kill the children rather than send them back to slavery. After
this Baby Suggs realizes that white folk are the reason for all
"Anything dead coming back to life the misery she has suffered.
hurts."
— Amy Denver, Part 1, Chapter 3

"Freeing yourself was one thing;
claiming ownership of that freed
Denver remembers this quotation from her mother's story of self was another."
her birth. It foreshadows what is to come: Beloved coming
back to life and the chaos she will cause in their lives.
— Sethe, Part 1, Chapter 9
"To Sethe, the future was a matter Sethe recalls the other black people she had known in the
Clearing and in 124 and how, like her, they had claimed
of keeping the past at bay." themselves. This was a difficult process, as the only life she
knew was that of a slave. It was difficult for her at first to be
— Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 3 her own person. But, with the help of others, she has learned
how to be free. She now realizes that she is in control of her
own life; no one else gets to tell her what to do.
The life that Sethe and Denver are living is better than the one
they lived at Sweet Home under schoolteacher. She has no
other plans. She constantly fights the memories of that life in
order to stay sane.
"All testimony to the results of a
little so-called freedom imposed
"To love anything that much was on a people who needed every
dangerous, especially if it was her care and guidance in the world to
children." keep them from the cannibal life

they preferred."
— Paul D, Part 1, Chapter 4
— Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 16
Paul D believes love is risky, especially for slaves. Children

were a commodity to slave owners, and no regard was given to This is the thinking of the sheriff and his men who came to take
family love. Paul D feels it is better not to love at all because Sethe and her children back to Sweet Home. It is a testament
then there is nothing to lose. to their belief that the slaves were animals that had to be
rescued from a life as savages.
"There is no bad luck in the world

but whitefolks." "The world is in this room. This
here's all there is and all there
— Baby Suggs, Part 1, Chapter 9
needs to be."

Beloved Study Guide Quotes 29
— Sethe, Part 2, Chapter 19

"Everything rested on Garner
Sethe realizes that she can't live outside 124. She has Beloved
being alive. Without his life each of
and Denver, and they are all she believes she needs. She is theirs fell to pieces."
finally content.
"I told you to put her human

Garner had treated his slaves like humans. He called Paul D
characteristics on the left; her and the others men. When Garner died schoolteacher took
over, and the slaves were treated cruelly. Some were sold, and
animal ones on the right." some were killed. Others escaped but carried the memories of
schoolteacher's brutality with them.
— Schoolteacher, Part 2, Chapter 19
Schoolteacher's words show the theme of the dehumanization "Sethe was trying to make up for
of slavery. White slave owners believed that their slaves were
savage animals in order to justify their own inhumane behavior.
the handsaw; Beloved was making
her pay for it."
"If I hadn't killed her she would — Denver, Part 3, Chapter 26
have died and that is something I

Life at 124 has deteriorated. Beloved takes up all of Sethe's
could not bear to happen to her." time. She has become unpredictable, constantly needing to be
soothed with sweets. With this thought Denver realizes the
— Sethe, Part 2, Chapter 20 connection between her mother and Beloved. Sethe was doing
everything she could to redeem herself for murdering her baby,
This statement from Sethe explains her belief that killing while Beloved was slowly sucking the life out of her for doing
Beloved herself was better than letting her die as a slave at the so.
hands of slave owners. These words exemplify slaves' lack of
control over their lives and those of their family members.
"Edward Bodwin ... had one clear
directive: human life is holy."
"His tobacco tin, blown open,
spilled contents that floated freely — Narrator, Part 3, Chapter 26
and made him their play and prey."

This quotation provides a direct contrast between the
Bodwins, who helped the freed African Americans, and the
slave owners, who still thought of them as animals.
Paul D thinks of his heart as a tobacco tin, shut tight against

the pain of memory. In this quotation his heart, in which all the
"The pieces I am, she gather them
memories of his past were securely stored, has blown apart. All
the memories of Sweet Home come rushing back to him, and give them back to me in all the
making him vulnerable.

Beloved Study Guide Symbols 30
right order." Water

— Sixo, Part 3, Chapter 27
Water symbolizes escape. Paul D and the chain gang escape

Paul D is remembering what Sixo said of the Thirty-Mile when rainwater floods their enclosure. Likewise, Sethe crosses
Woman. Now Paul D feels the same way about Sethe. Paul D the Ohio River to escape slavery. Denver is born on the river,
always admired Sixo as an example of manhood and wanted to after her mother's water breaks, and she is freed from her
emulate him. Now he is able to experience with Sethe what mother's womb. Sethe breaks water again, feeling the need to
Sixo experienced with the Thirty-Mile Woman. urinate when she sees a young stranger named Beloved,
symbolizing her freedom from the memories of murdering her.
Beloved herself emerges from the river and is born again. She
"We got more yesterday than has been freed from the confines of death.
anybody. We need some kind of

tomorrow."
Trees
— Paul D, Part 3, Chapter 27
In Beloved trees signify both comfort and evil. Trees are the
Paul D realizes that the past is over and he can no longer let it means of death for Sethe's mother (hanged), Sixo (tied to a
haunt him. He has come to terms with it and wants to work on tree and burned), and numerous other, unnamed slaves, both
having a future with Sethe. before and after the war. The "tree" on Sethe's back, scars
from whippings, is a symbol of the evils of slavery.
However, trees are also a source of comfort. Denver retreats

l Symbols to her emerald closet of boxwood trees, where she finds
solitude. Paul D follows the flowering trees to the North, as he
makes his escape. Both Sethe and Paul D find comfort in
remembering the trees at Sweet Home. Paul D especially
Colors remembers the sycamore he called Brother, under which he
and the other Sweet Home men would gather to cool off and
share companionship.
Colors represent different things to each character. Red is a
symbol of pain, evil, and death. When Paul D first walks through
the door of 124, a pool of red light stops him in his tracks. He
asks Sethe, "What kind of evil you got in here?" To Paul D, red 124
is also the color of the rooster Mister's comb, which represents
the evils of slavery and the freedom he feels he will never have.
The house on Bluestone Road is referred to as 124. Each of
Baby Suggs contemplates colors such as yellow and blue,
the three books of the novel begins with a description of 124.
which signify peace for her. She never gets to red, the color of
This number is significant in that it symbolizes Beloved, the
the dead baby's blood. Red would be painful for Baby Suggs,
baby Sethe murdered. Sethe had four children, and number 3
and Sethe understands why she never thought about it.
is missing because she is dead by her mother's own hand.
Pink is the last color Sethe remembers seeing—the pink of her
baby's headstone.

Beloved Study Guide Themes 31
understand. In this way Beloved helps Sethe confront the past,

Baby Ghost but it almost ruins her. Through these memories Morrison
makes sure the reader does not forget the brutality of slavery.
The ghost is the dead child Sethe murdered. She symbolizes

slavery and its horrors; Beloved is her reincarnation. Sethe is
still enslaved by the memory of killing her daughter. Beloved Loss of Identity in Slavery
intervenes and breaks the cycle of painful memories, especially
those of Sethe and Paul D. Only then are they able to go on
with their lives. The author metaphorically refers to the slaves as animals.
Sethe's trouble begins when schoolteacher's nephews nurse
from her, milking her as if she were a goat or a cow.
Schoolteacher tells them to categorize her qualities, putting
m Themes her "human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the
right."
When she murders her child, schoolteacher thinks Sethe has

Past versus Present gone wild and blames his nephew for overbeating her, thereby
rendering her useless to him as a slave. He justifies her
behavior, saying she acted like an animal that had been
Sethe is in a constant struggle to "beat back the past." mishandled. Even when Sethe tries to explain her actions to
However, it will not remain buried, either literally or figuratively. Paul D, he tells her she has "two feet, not four."
The ghost of her dead daughter haunts her. While she is
Paul D and Halle also suffer loss of identity. They are treated
content with that, Paul D, "the last of the Sweet Home men,"
like men at Sweet Home when Mr. Garner consults them. But,
comes to visit her, bringing with him painful memories of
when they set foot off of Garner's property, they are
slavery. Sethe hates her "rebellious brain" that will leave no
trespassing in the white man's world, where they are not men
painful memory behind, with no room to plan for the future. But
but merely property. After he tries to escape and is caught,
with Paul D she is better able to bear the past because the
Paul D is chained up and an iron bit is placed in his mouth.
horrors belong to him too. She hopes that she can learn to
trust him. Eventually, she tells him her worst memory, that of
killing her own child to save her from slavery. He reneges on
his promise to "catch her" and leaves.
Guilt
Paul D begins to talk to Sethe about memories of Sweet Home.
But he leaves most of them locked up in the "tobacco tin" that
takes the place of his heart. After hearing Sethe's reasons for Sethe lives a life of solitude and is so steeped in guilt over the
killing her daughter, his tobacco tin is blown wide open. killing of her daughter that she loses her sense of self. At first,
Memories of the horrors of Sweet Home under authority of Sethe accepts the antics of the ghost of her baby daughter.
schoolteacher (the slave owner) come flooding back. In the When Beloved returns to her, Sethe begins to indulge her
end Paul D remembers his friend Sixo's love for the Thirty-Mile every whim. Out of guilt, she tries to make up for what she has
Woman. He decides he wants to combine his story with done to her baby.
Sethe's and make a future together.
Beloved is the incarnate memory of the horrible act Sethe
Beloved's memories, revealed in stream-of-consciousness committed. Sethe struggles to make Beloved understand that
narration, are of dying and being among dead people. When she killed her out of love. Toward the end of the novel, Sethe
she comes back to life, she remembers her mother's diamond stops taking care of herself because Beloved is angry with her.
earrings and a song she sang. She forces her mother to It is not until Beloved is banished by the neighbors that Sethe is
remember. Sethe wants to tell Beloved everything, to make her

Beloved Study Guide Suggested Reading 32
finally rid of the guilt.
Love
Slavery does not allow for love. It arrests all emotional

attachments, especially between family members. Paul D
knows this and feels that love is risky. It is dangerous for slaves
to love anything and anyone, especially their children. Family
love can "split you wide open." He feels it is best to love "just a
little." He defines freedom as getting to a place where you
could love "anything you choose."
When Sethe sees her children free in Cincinnati, she feels even
more love for them. However, she proves Paul D right: the
battle lines between love and slavery are clearly drawn. Sethe
loves her daughter so much that she kills her rather than see
her return to slavery. Sethe tries to explain to Paul D and, later,
to Beloved that what she did was right because "it came from
true love." When Paul D tells her that her love is "too thick," she
replies, "Thin love ain't no love at all." Sethe loves the only way
she knows how and pays a terrible price for it by being
haunted by the memory of the child she killed.
e Suggested Reading
DiPace, Angela. "Toni Morrison's Beloved: 'Unspeakable Things
Unspoken; Spoken."Sacred Heart University Review 14.1 (1994).
Web. 7 July 2016.
Frederickson, Mary E., Delores M. Walters, and Darlene Clark

Hine. Gendered Resistance: Women, Slavery, and the Legacy of
Margaret Garner. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2013. Print.
Kella, Elizabeth. Beloved Communities: Solidarity and

Difference in Fiction by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and
Joy Kogawa. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2000.
Print.
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary

Imagination. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992. Print.
Weinstein, Arnold L. Recovering Your Story: Proust, Joyce,

Woolf, Faulkner, Morrison. New York: Random, 2006. Print.

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Beloved

Study Guide by Course Hero

stream-of-consciousness (a person's thoughts and conscious

ABOUT THE TITLE

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2

h Characters ................................................................................................... 2 d In Context

c Chapter Summaries ............................................................................... 11 Fugitive Slave Laws

j Book Basics Slavery and Family Life

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Other Major Character

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Full Character List Miss Bodwin is a white woman,

Mr. Bodwin is a white man, brother

Mr. Garner is a "kinder" slave

Nelson Lord is the boy who asks

Paul D is an ex-​slave who has a

Baby Suggs is Sethe's mother-​in- Paul F is one of the slaves at Sweet

Sawyer is the owner of the

Thirty-​Mile Woman is the slave

Janey Wagon is the servant at the

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goes to 124 to try to make amends. As he approaches he hears

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forward into a better life.

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7. A group of women arrive at 124; Beloved disappears.

1. 124 is being haunted by a baby ghost.

8. Paul D promises to take care of Sethe.

2. Former slave Paul D moves into 124 and banishes ghost.

6. Sethe becomes weak; neighbors begin to help.

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Sethe and her daughter, Denver, live in 124, a house

Paul D, who knew Sethe 18 years before, arrives,

Four days later

A strange woman found leaning against a tree moves

A few days later

Sethe remembers killing her daughter to keep her from

Stamp Paid shows Paul D a news story about Sethe

The same day

Paul D confronts Sethe, who confesses the murder, and

A few days later

Beloved hums a song that Sethe made up; Sethe realizes

Sethe and Denver are starving; Beloved demands all the

Denver visits Lady Jones about a job; Denver tells her

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The neighbor women march to 124 to expel the ghost;

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found out she told Mrs. Garner, the plantation's widowed

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Could slaves, who were mere property, ever be considered ghost.

Sethe feels fortunate to have been married to the father of all

Home, under the Garners, with something approaching

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reminds Denver of the story of her own miraculous birth. The

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the loss of identity experienced by those who have been

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Analysis Beloved not to leave them now, to which Beloved responds

resentful, that confuses his understanding? She tells him she

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Upon reaching the Clearing, Sethe sits on Baby Suggs's rock,

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Paul D is an ex-slave who has a

Baby Suggs is Sethe's mother-in- Paul F is one of the slaves at Sweet

Thirty-Mile Woman is the slave