Chapter 2 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 2

3. What are Paul D and Sethe remembering about Sweet Home? Why do you think Morrison gives us the information little bit by little bit?
   
4. Why does Sethe refer to memories of the past as “rememory”; what does she mean by this concept. What is the relationship between past and present in the novel? 
   
   
   3. Paul D and Sethe are remembering different things about Sweet Home. Paul D is remembering how when Sethe came to Sweet Home they all wanted to have sex with her, and they had sex with the calves and dreamed about raping her. Paul D also remembers how he picked a tree and named it Brother, and often sat underneath it with Sixo. He remembers how Sixo tried and tried to create the perfect night-cooked potatoes but never succeeded, and how Sixo once walked 17 hours to spend one hour with a woman and 17 hours to walk home. Sethe remembers when the boys were shy and quiet and refused to touch her for the longest time. She remembers when she would bring the food out to them in the fields and they wouldn't take it from her hands, and she would leave it at the foot of a tree, and a few times she hid behind a bush to watch them. 
   Both Sethe and Paul D remember when Sethe and Halle coupled for the first time in the corn field- the corn swaying, Sethe and Halle oblivious and the Pauls and Sixo watching from afar. 
   Sethe remembers the dress she made on the sly- her wedding dress.
   I think that Morrison gives us this information in bits and pieces because it gives the reader more time to develop a sense of the feelings of the situation and a better understanding of the feelings involved.
   
   4. Rememory is Sethe's term for telling her memories to others. The relationship between the past in the present is very strong in this book. Sethe fears the past and doesn't often want to revisit it. The past is a heavy weight on everyone, and has guided their decisions and circumstances.