Chapter 20 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 20
34. Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking to? How does this narrator feel about Beloved’s return?

34) Chapter 20 is written half as a stream of consciousness half as Sethe telling Beloved  a story. Sethe is trying to explain to Beloved how she, as a mother, could kill her own child. Sethe is conflicted by her daughter's return. She is regretful. She is sorry she killed her daughter. She is happy to have her back, to have the opportunity to explain. She doesn't understand why she didn't recognize Beloved immediately. 

Sethe is also thoughtful about how a mother loves. She saw her own mother hanged, but doesn't know why. She thinks perhaps she tried to run, but she ran without Sethe. Sethe would like to believe that she wouldn't dare leave Sethe behind. We do however know that Sethe's mother threw away the half black half white children she had as she didn't want them. Being able to throw one's children away, even if they are the product of rape is an intense emotional detachment. We also know that when Baby Suggs' Husband ran away, he left her, and she would have left him and their children if she had to. This further promotes  the animalistic existence slaves were forced into. All of this leads to Sethe's feelings of hope that perhaps Beloved understands that she didn't abandon her. She was protecting her at all costs.

Chapter 15 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 15
Explain what the following quote refers to, and what its significance is:

25. “Her friends and neighbors were angry at her because she had overstepped, given too
    much, offended them by excess.”
    
26. “And when she stepped foot on free ground she could not believe that Halle knew what
    she didn’t; that Halle, who had never drawn one free breath, knew that there was nothing like it in this world. It scared her.” 
    
    
    25) This quote refers to the day after Baby Sugg's party. She had been bought freedom, brought to 124 by her old master and set up for a life. She offended those around her by her overuse of her good fortune. They felt she was flaunting it in their faces. The community turned against those is 124. The story almost insinuates that the people around 124 could have run and warned Sethe, warned the kids, gotten them to run. But they didn't. Because they were offended by Baby Sugg's excess. She had too much, she got off easy, she didn't deserve it. They felt the women of 124 had gotten too prideful. They watched Sethe go off the deep end, go crazy, come out covered in her child's blood, and wondered if her head was held too high. They didn't feel sorry, they felt resentful of 124's fortune. And that day is the day the people stopped coming to visit 124.

26) This quote is referring to the first time Baby Suggs walked as a free woman. The part of the quote that is the most significant is "It scared her." It scared her that Halle knew something she didn't. Since he was old enough to walk he was working for a white master and had never known anything different. It scared her that he could know it without ever thinking he could do it. It scared her that he would give that much, give up that much for her. Nobody had ever loved her that much before. Freedom also scared her. She didn't know what to do with herself, how to live for herself. She didn't know how to love. How to live, how to survive. It scared her that she was on her own. That is was up to her to stop people from nocking her down. It scared her that she COULD stand up to those trying to knock her down, physically and emotionally. She didn't know what to give, how to share what she had with others. She eventually discovered how, but she didn't just know, and that scared her. It was terrifying for her, but she figured it out, and she lived.

Chapter 18 Journal Entry for Beloved

 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.

Chapter 17 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 17
29. Imagine you are Paul D walking home from talking to Stamp Paid. What have you just found out? What are your feelings towards Sethe? Will you talk to her? If so, what will you say? 

That woman ain't Sethe. Not the Sethe I know. Her eyes got all wrong and there a wildness there. How could she kill her children? Weren't they worth everything to her? aint they worth everything to any mother whose still got them? Do I tell her I know? Do I ask why? she gonna see it in my eyes. No sane woman not gone wild murders her kids to get away from slave catchers. I gotta know how. I gotta know why. Cause no sane woman gonna do that. How could she. I'll lead up  real slow, we gonna go on a walk, a nice slow one. She gonna see it in my eyes and she gon know. and i ask why if I gotta but I bet she gonna tell me. 

My interpretation of Paul D's thoughts and feelings as he is walking home from talking with Stamp Paid is that he understands but he's not sure if he believes. He is confused, the Sethe he knows is a quiet young girl that is an attachment to Halle. He thinks she is weak, that she doesn't have anyone to help her get out of her house. However, he understands that Stamp is telling the truth. You don't bad mouth a neighbor or friend like that without a very good cause- meaning its the truth and Paul D deserves to know if he is going to stay. I believe that will be written all over his face by the time he gets home to Sethe and the girls.

Chapter 16 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 16

27. Who thinks this to himself? “But now she’d gone wild, due to the mishandling of the nephew who’d overbeat her and made her run.”
28. What is he talking about? Do you agree with him?

27) This quote is of the schoolteacher's inner monologue.

28) He is talking about Sethe, how she'd "gone wild", gone back to her "true" animalistic state, how she was now a beast you couldn't ever trust again. He refers to when his nephew beat her, beat the sanity, the humanity almost, out of her. He references the hunting dogs and the horse, how if you beat them like the nephew beat Sethe they would "go wild". They would turn on you in a heartbeat just because they felt like it. How you could no longer have a lick of trust for that animal, or in this case person- even though schoolteacher doesn't agree. 

I agree with him in some ways. I think that she's lost some of her mental sanctity and her understanding of better or worse due to her treatment by schoolteacher and his nephews.  I think that in a sense she has "gone wild". She is going to do whatever she needs to in order to protect her babies from this terrible evil- the evil she knows. Beyond that, I disagree with him. Sethe is not an animal. Nothing should ever be beaten, human or animal so that makes all his actions atrocious. Also, Sethe didn't run because the nephew beat her. Sethe ran because she knew no worse situation to be in, and wanted out, she wanted her babies out. Schoolteacher is generally mistaken when it comes to blacks and Sethe in particular.

Chapter 14 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 14
24. What is starting to happen to Beloved? Why do you think she cries? 

24) I believe that Beloved is starting to come apart at her seams. I believe she is reverting back to her ghostly, body-less form. I think she cried because all she really wants is to stay and to keep Sethe there to complete her. She feels that without Sethe's full attention she isn't fully complete and will truly begin to break apart and return to the land beyond the living that holds no meaning for her.  I also believe that she cries because she wants to feel whole, and right now, Sethe is the only thing that can make her feel that way.

Chapter 13 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 13
23. How is Paul D’s problem sleeping in the house solved? What predictions can you make about the future of the conflict between Paul D and Beloved? 

23) Paul D's problem of where to sleep (in the house or in the cold house) is solved by Sethe deciding he is going to come back and sleep in her bed. She says "You come upstairs. Where you belong, ... and stay there." For Paul D, this solves the problem because Sethe is his defense against Beloved, and her stating he belongs in her bed, sleeping with her, having sex with her, reinforces him against Beloved's "malice". I believe that this change in sleeping location, as well as Beloved's new inability to have him dream (or not dream) of having sex with her will cause more strife within the household. Beloved is now more likely to be more bold, more daring, and more cruel to all of them because she has been thwarted and spited once again. I think that eventually Beloved will drive Paul D out of the house, and be more vengeful than she would have been originally.