Chapter 26 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 26

44. Describe life inside 124 from Denver’s perspective after Sethe figures out who Beloved is. What seems to be happening?
    
45. How are the community of women presented, and how is their relationship to Sethe different now than it was earlier in the novel?
    
46. Compare the climactic scene in this chapter to the first climax in the story. What significance do you see in the similarities and differences? 
    

44) To Denver, life in 124 is ending. It is no longer a life, and like Howard and Buglar came to realize before her, she could not stay. After Sethe realizes who Beloved is, Beloved's existence begins to eat away at her. Sethe becomes later and later to work and is eventually fired, but as the food begins to run low, she gives it up for Beloved. The once adult, mothering statue that was Sethe begins to decay and in her place grows a beautiful, powerful, strong version of Beloved. To Denver, this must look like Beloved is finally killing her mother, the one thing Denver feared second to Beloved leaving her alone.

45) Earlier in the novel, the community is presented as hating on Sethe. They are presented to avoid 124, and treat Sethe and her respective family with disrespect and condescension. When Ella gathers the women, they are presented as a force to be reckoned with. they are not simply 30 some odd women, they are determined and supportive and willing. They are going to get this ghost out of the house and they will stay by Sethe's side if need be. This is greatly contrasted with the original portrayal as they are supportive and not avoiding her.

46) In my opinion, the first great climax in the story is the murder of the the crawling already? baby, or Beloved. This is different because in this time, the community is seen as shying away from 124, thinking them too lucky, and believing they are flaunting their wealth of happiness. In this scene, the community is seen as banding together to rid 124 of the ghost all together in order to save Sethe and Denver, and support them as part of the community.

Chapter 25 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 25
43. How does Stamp Paid try to explain Sethe’s actions to Paul D? Do you agree or disagree with him? Explain. 

43) Stamp Paid tried to explain that Sethe was only trying to "outhurt the hurter". Meaning she wouldn't let schoolteacher at her children, and the only way she knew was to hurt them worse so he wouldn't want them. To Stamp, this was a terrible crime, but an understandable one. I agree with him on the aspect. This is because I believe Schoolteacher and his nephews hurt her so bad, both mentally and physically, that she became convinced that she had no other choice. While scary and awful, what Sethe did does make sense to a degree. I think that Stamp Paid was right to defend her to Paul D , as he cares for the family and he understands how one's love can end at the hands of a white man. This is because Stamp had to give his wife to his old master's son, and when she was given back, he wanted to snap her neck and stop the torture to her soul, and the torture to his. 

Chapter 24 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 24

41. What new information do we learn about the attempted escape from Sweet Home in this chapter?
    
42. “Paul D hears the men talking and for the first time learns his worth. He has always known, or believed he did, his value -- as a hand, a laborer who could make a profit on a farm -- but now he discovers his worth, which is to say he learns his price.” Why is this such an important moment for Paul D? How do you think it affects him to hear “his worth”? 
    
    41. In this chapter we learn more about the fates of the others at Sweet Home. For example, we learn that Sixo was burned alive, but his thirty mile woman escaped, with his child in her womb. Paul D recounts that when Sixo was captured he began to laugh, and Sixo never laughed. Schoolteacher considered him ruined, as he later considered Sethe, they had both "gone wild". While Schoolteacher couldn't kill Sethe he could kill Sixo, and did so by burning him alive. Paul D also mentions that when Sixo was burning, he kept yelling Seven-O, which we then find out is the name of Sixo's soon to be child.
    
    As we also find out, Paul A (one of Paul D's half brothers) and Halle failed to show when they were supposed to. Paul D is dragged back to the farm by schoolteacher and then sees Sethe, who I get the impression was also supposed to show. Paul D thinks that this must have been right before her rape as it is the last time he sees her for 18 years.
    
    42. Hearing one's price is one of the most demeaning things a person can hear. Someone would pay x amount of dollars for this THING. People do not pay money for people. They pay money for people to do specific services- i.e. maids, but do not pay for the entire person. They pay for animals, being traded in such a way is incredibly degrading. He has no value as a human being, he has no value to them in the way he works, as long as he does work. 

To Paul D, this is end of it all, the end of his humanity. The end of him being treated even potentially well, and he is now an animal. I think this breaks him in a way. We know Halle "broke" when he saw Sethe raped, and I believe that when Paul D heard his "worth" he broke. He no longer believed that he could be the human he wanted to be, and lost something in that. He eventually regained his humanity to a degree but he will always be healing that wound.

Chapter 23 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 23
39. Who are the narrators in this chapter? What do they keep repeating?
40. What is the mood in this chapter? Based on the last three chapters, how would you
predict life is changing at 124? 

39) All three women at 124 are speaking in this chapter. Their voices are mixed up in a gentle clamor, probably the one heard by Stamp Paid every time he would go to 124.  They keep repeating "you are mine" over and over. It is a conformation of love, and of family. 

40) The mood in this chapter is more cheerful than any of the others. I found this chapter rather comforting, and I was hoping the women of 124 were also comforted. That they now understood each other and accepted one another. That Beloved loved Sethe too much and Denver was there by her side, that Beloved missed her mother, and that Sethe promised to never leave her again. They all speak about smiles. How Beloved forgot hers, how Sethe kept it for her and how Denver missed it.
I would predict that life is changing for the better at 124. That the crimes have been forgiven, the guilt will always haunt, but it has been forgiven. I think that Denver understands that she is not alone, and that she can make it herself. Beloved understands she is loved, and that its okay to move on to the afterlife. That even if there are men without skin, she is safe because she is loved. With this knowledge I think they have all been freed to go out on their own and move on. Sethe is free to love, Denver is free to be social, and Beloved is free to "cross the rainbow bridge" so to speak.

Chapter 19 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 19
32. Was Stamp Paid right to tell Paul D about Sethe’s past? He argues with himself about it. Give one reason it was a good idea, and one that is was a bad idea. What do you think?
33. Why did Sethe decide she had to run away from Sweet Home? Use a quote from the book to in your explanation.

32) In my opinion, Stamp Paid was right to tell Paul D about Sethe's past. It was Paul D's right to know, and his right to understand why they were locked away in 124 without any friends or anyone left to come back to them. One reason it was a good idea, in Stamp's opinion, is that a man has a right to know what he's getting himself into. Stamp wanted to give something to them, and he thought for a minute that was the way to do it. He then later decides it wasn't best. That if not for Baby Suggs then for Denver, the baby he had saved. The one he had wrapped up and saved from a fate in the river, they baby he fed those sweet sweet blackberries to. He feels a fatherly connection to Denver and later thinks that by accidentally driving Paul D off he has harmed her.

33) In my personal opinion, Sethe's final trigger to get her kids out of sweet home was Mrs. Garner dying and the measuring tape. On page 226, Sethe says "I didn't care nothing about the measuring string... But I didn't care. Schoolteacher'd wrap that string all over my head, 'cross my nose, around my behind. Number my teeth. I thought he was a fool." She then later asks Mrs. Garner about what characteristics are- what schoolteacher told her he was finding. Then, on page 233 she says "Ha ha. NO notebook for my babies and no measuring string either." I think that to her, the measuring string and the questions were the line of being treated like animals, and she wanted her children to escape that.

For Sethe herself, the final trigger of "GET OUT" would be her rape and the nephews stealing her milk. She knew then she couldn't wait for Halle or anyone else and left as soon as she could.

Chapter 22 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 22
36. Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking about?
37. Describe the style of the narrator’s language this chapter? Why do you think Morrison
made it so difficult to understand?
38. What images does the narrator describe? What do you think she is referring to? 

36) Beloved the child ghost grown up is the narrator in this chapter. She talks about Sethe almost endlessly. She loves Sethe, because she is her mother, but then has a slightly unhealthy obsession with Sethe as her murderer.

37) This chapter is written without punctuation but with spacing. I think that one of the reasons Morrison made Beloved's chapter so hard to read is because she is infantile. She appears as an adult to Paul D, Sethe, and Denver, but also childish and suckling. She is still young and I think that mentally she has a better understanding of the world but she still has an infantile attitude. She has no care for Denver's feelings, and doesn't understand that maybe she should. 

38) The imagery that Beloved uses is very interesting. It is also very undefinitive. As the reader, we can pick out little details to find who she is talking about. She also talks about her time when "dead", when not a ghost. She speaks of lying among flesh and "men without skin". People were trying to leave, leave their bodies behind. 
Beloved then begins speaking about Sethe, and the "iron Circle" around her neck, as well as Sethe's face being hers, the one she lost. 

I think from an external standpoint, the punctuation and writing style support the eery and dark mood of the chapter. Beloved in conversing about her wish to bond with Sethe and what she was missing. She also talks about coming back to a human form, coming out of the water and finding her way to 124. The effect of the horror-esque content and writing is intense for the writer, as well as making it very real.

Chapter 21 Journal Entry for Beloved

Chapter 21
35. Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking about? How does this narrator feel about Beloved’s return? 

35) Denver is the one speaking in this chapter. The chapter is written as a stream of consciousness from Denver, who is thinking and therefore speaking about Beloved and Sethe. She talks about how she drank Beloved's blood along with her mother's milk and how she knows Beloved is her sister. Denver is excited about Beloved' return. She thinks that perhaps Beloved has also come back to be with her, not just Sethe. To be her sister as the first line says. Maybe even wait for their father to come home, wait until they are safe from Sethe. Who Denver feared death from. She feels hopeful about Beloved's return. That perhaps things will get better. That perhaps Beloved is the love and companionship she is meant to have for her life.