Chapter 18
For each of the following quotes, explain:
a. What does it tell us literally about the characters and what they are experiencing?
b. What is significant about the quote? Does it have a deeper meaning than the one it holds in this context? Does it contain any literary devices that make it beautiful or interesting?
30. “So you protected yourself and loved small. ...A woman, a child, a brother -- a big love like that would split you wide open in Alfred, Georgia.”
31. “”You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.”
30) a. Paul D is remembering his time in Alfred, Georgia in the chain gang. How you couldn't love anything "so big", meaning you couldn't give away that much of yourself because it was guaranteed to end in pain. You couldn't invest yourself emotionally to such a degree.
b. This quote is representative of the emotional destruction many if not all slaves face. Later in the chapter, and in the book, Paul D begins to run away from feelings. He has been for so long. When he finds out everything about Sethe, he begins to think about running again. I think it is interesting that he refers to it as "loved small", and "a big love like that".
31) a. In a physical sense, Paul D and Sethe are having a conversation about when Sethe killed Beloved and tried to kill her sons. The "forest" in the quote refers to their emotional states. A forest is quite, dark, and empty. They didn't have forests at sweet home, but when Sethe and the others left, the was a literal forest separating them. When Paul D appeared at 124, that forest disappeared, they were both ready to begin feeling for each other. When Paul D makes this comment, an emotional forest is born. They are separated now, and its not a forest or a wall either of them can cut down again.
b. This quote is significant to the story because it signals the end of Paul D's and Sethe's relationship. Not only their relationship but their friendship, their familiarity. This will probably cause Paul D to leave 124 and not return. What Paul D says "You got two feet, Sethe, not four," he is calling her an animal. He is telling her that she has caved to the slave life and is no better than a dog, not even a prime hunting dog, but a cur off the street, begging for scraps. This creates a deeper meaning in the chapter, because an animal is something white treated black slaves as, too often, and something a slave could never afford to stoop to without losing their humanity. This was one of the worst things a black could do, no matter what happened to them. They were gone, they were shunned from the only community that accepted them.
a. What does it tell us literally about the characters and what they are experiencing?
b. What is significant about the quote? Does it have a deeper meaning than the one it holds in this context? Does it contain any literary devices that make it beautiful or interesting?
30. “So you protected yourself and loved small. ...A woman, a child, a brother -- a big love like that would split you wide open in Alfred, Georgia.”
31. “”You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.”
30) a. Paul D is remembering his time in Alfred, Georgia in the chain gang. How you couldn't love anything "so big", meaning you couldn't give away that much of yourself because it was guaranteed to end in pain. You couldn't invest yourself emotionally to such a degree.
b. This quote is representative of the emotional destruction many if not all slaves face. Later in the chapter, and in the book, Paul D begins to run away from feelings. He has been for so long. When he finds out everything about Sethe, he begins to think about running again. I think it is interesting that he refers to it as "loved small", and "a big love like that".
31) a. In a physical sense, Paul D and Sethe are having a conversation about when Sethe killed Beloved and tried to kill her sons. The "forest" in the quote refers to their emotional states. A forest is quite, dark, and empty. They didn't have forests at sweet home, but when Sethe and the others left, the was a literal forest separating them. When Paul D appeared at 124, that forest disappeared, they were both ready to begin feeling for each other. When Paul D makes this comment, an emotional forest is born. They are separated now, and its not a forest or a wall either of them can cut down again.
b. This quote is significant to the story because it signals the end of Paul D's and Sethe's relationship. Not only their relationship but their friendship, their familiarity. This will probably cause Paul D to leave 124 and not return. What Paul D says "You got two feet, Sethe, not four," he is calling her an animal. He is telling her that she has caved to the slave life and is no better than a dog, not even a prime hunting dog, but a cur off the street, begging for scraps. This creates a deeper meaning in the chapter, because an animal is something white treated black slaves as, too often, and something a slave could never afford to stoop to without losing their humanity. This was one of the worst things a black could do, no matter what happened to them. They were gone, they were shunned from the only community that accepted them.
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