Focus: Who/what is Beloved?
Winter Assembly: Shortened Class
1. Warming up: How is Beloved marked?
What does our friend, Thomas Foster (from How To Read Literature...) have to say about marks?
"...character markings stand as indicators of the damage life inflicts...[characters] bear signs illustrating the way life marks all who pass through it." (195)
Find a couple of good passages illustrated how Beloved is marked. What might these marks signify?
2. Discussing Chapters 5 through 8 of Beloved, Socratic style
3. Wrapping up (note to self: class ends at 9:06)
HW:
1. Read your critical review book.
2. Read Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12 for Monday. As you read, keep a Google doc where you simply type favorite/intriguing/seemingly important words and phrases from these chapters. You'll want at least ten, but the more, the better. You don't need to print it yet; just share it with me.
3. Next poetry response due on Monday.
Opening Question Markings:
ReplyDeleteWhy is Beloved’s voice contradictory with her other descriptions?
she shiny, new skin, happy, but her voice is low and rough
Other contradictions:
Her feet were like hands
She claimed to have come a long way to come to 124, but her hands were really pampered
Amid all that she was smiling, even though she was in so much pain
Flawless skin except for 3 scratches
Who is Beloved?
She is similar to a baby, coming out the water, new
Maybe she is Sethe’s dead daughter
She can’t read, hasn’t learned a lot
Her voice was rough, which might have something to do with Sethe’s baby’s throat being cut
Beloved knows things about Sethe that she couldn’t know
Denver knows, How?
She is almost possessive of Sethe
pg 88 What is like over there?-Dark.. Beloved is back from the grave, she was small. hot, nothing to breath, lot of people down, bridge
“What did you come back for?” “Sethe”
Where was she before?
Purgatory, hot, lots of people waiting
bridges represent transition between two places
Was she the one haunting the house
Slaveship?-crowded images, people dying
Underground railroad
possibly not be supernatural
Why is Denver jealous that Beloved said that she came to see Sethe’s face
She thinks of the ghost baby as a sort of friend, so if Beloved came back for Sethe only, then she felt unimportant
3 scratches?
Numbers-124 for house, Beloved is the third
Why are they on her forehead?
Marked on, chosen one, it gives her physical distinction from everyone else
The number 3 is a demonic number-some kind of evil
Is Beloved evil or good?
Something is not right about her, she has a lot of anger, she gets very upset
There is something about her that is not at peace
If she is the reincarnation of the baby, then babies are innocent and good, so how can she be evil
When she was haunting the house, she was somewhat evil, even as a baby ghost
Why do the characters seem ignorant?
Paul D and Denver see how different she is but Sethe doesn’t
Last page of Chapter 7- “Nothing better than that to start the day’s serious work of beating back the past”
Paul D is future, and the ghost is her past?
Why does Sethe have trouble accepting Beloved?
Beloved is a walking mistake or scar for Sethe
Sethe stands up for her when Paul D scorns her
When Beloved is in ghost form, Sethe doesn’t have to face her past as much, but Beloved’s physical representation is more difficult to avoid
Seeing Beloved as a young women, it make her think of what could have been
Is Beloved actually a real person?
The shininess makes it seem like shes not from here
Why is Paul D uncomfortable with Beloved?
He is less attached, so he can see the negative qualities
Maybe he is the least bothered because he is not as weary or scared of her
He was weary with the ghost and it transferred to the physical representation
Beginning of chapter 5 Champaigne passage?
not completely put together
comparing her to drunk people
talks like a child, doesn’t know what’s going on
Neck was thin as a saucer plate?
strange way to describe someone
Like a young baby’s neck, can’t hold it up
another unnatural quality
Chapter 8-Denver being born passage, reference of the dragon in the river, when she gets out on the northern side
spors of blue fern, silvery blue, lots of blue reference, union associated with blue and north
dragon? the KKK the head of the klan is the imperial dragon?
Wrap Up
Haunting baby having throat cut-connection to Beloved’s rough voice
Why does Beloved stay after she saw Sethe’s face?
Why is Beloved calling herself Beloved if she’s Sethe’s baby
Amy is very self-centered, but she still helps Sethe
Significance of Lady Button Eyes song
pg 83 her brain was hungry for the past
Does Beloved want revenge on Sethe?
Paul D and Sethe talking about Halle?
Learn more about Sethe’s relationship with mother and how it relates to Sethe’s other relationships
Significance of the color red
Amy’s description of the tree on Sethe’s back, beautiful wound
Similarities between Beloved and Cathy