Beloved pages 53-102

Our reading starts out by Paul D trying to lay some ground rules. He feels like settling down with Sethe, but that means Denver must resent Paul D’s presence so overtly. Paul D presents the idea that he could make a life with Sethe, together. He says something very poetic about having been wandering through Ohio for 7 years, only to come to Sethe’s porch and realize that he had been wandering toward her the whole time. His feelings are hard to pin down, that's for sure!

To lighten the mood, Paul D suggests that the three of them go to the carnival being held in town. He’s cheery and energetic from the get-go on the outing, Denver pouts, and Sethe sees their shadows holding hands (all three or just Paul D’s and Sethe’s?). She feels that, maybe, building a life together isn’t hopeless. 

A dizzyingly strong scent of dying roses hangs heavy in the air at the carnival. What might this mean? “Two pennies and an insult were well spent if it meant seeing the spectacle of white folks making a spectacle of themselves” (58). The carnival was a welcomed reprieve. Denver even started to cheer up. She had a sweet treat and got some hello’s, and life suddenly didn’t feel so horrible (relatable not gonna lie!). Paul D seems to lift both the women’s spirits, now.

Returning to the house, there’s a newcomer. A young woman by the name of Beloved. Huh! Denver warms to her immediately , and tends to her devotedly through her sickness. Beloved starts recovering, and revealed a strong sweet tooth. “It was as though sweet things were what she was born for” (66). Kind of like Denver? Anyways, this newcomer acts strangely, and that doesn’t sit well with Paul D. Denver really seems attached to her, though, so Sethe thinks Beloved can stick around for however long she’d like.

Beloved showed an “open, quiet devotion” to Sethe (68). Seems pretty odd to me. A little ghost-y, spirit-y, if I’m being honest. But, Sethe doesn’t mind. In fact, Beloved was the first person for whom Sethe would tell stories in full.

This is how we learn about Sethe’s mother.

But, the question must be asked: why is Beloved asking all these questions about things in Sethe’s life that Beloved shouldn’t have any knowledge about (as a stranger)?

But Denver knows Beloved is a spirit come back from the dead. Beloved reveals that she couldn’t care less about Denver; Beloved is only there for Sethe. 

Denver then recounts an embellished story of Denver’s birth.

We should discuss these things as well as what we learn about Halle and the butter churn.

Beloved pg. 4-51

We just started reading Beloved, and wow, the first three chapters are already intense. The book opens with Sethe, the main character, living in a gray and white house on Blue Stone Road that’s haunted by her baby girl. It’s not just any haunting, though – there’s something really unsettling about it. With random gusts of air, overturned jars and pots, moving sideboards, and earthquakes, you can sense that the house has a really sad and dark history.

Sethe lives there with her daughter, Denver, and it’s obvious from the start that Sethe is carrying a lot of baggage. She is an escaped slave from the "Sweet Home" plantation, and it can be inferred that a lot has happened between the timeline of her enslavement and the present setting. She used to live in the house with her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, before she passed away. Before Baby Sugg's death, Sethe's sons fled the house one after another, driven away by the dark and haunted past of the home. In the present, it is just Sethe and Denver in the house, along with the ghost baby that seems sad and almost resentful toward its mother. Because of the house's haunted nature, most people avoid the house and its residents like the plague. This causes Denver to grow up very lonely, especially after her brothers fled, leaving her to her own devices for 18 years with little to no social interaction. Denver escapes this loneliness and sadness by playing in a grove of boxwood bushes, almost like a treehouse, where she plays and acts out her imaginations.

When the lonesome family of two is joined by Paul D, one of the men who was enslaved on the same plantation as Sethe, we learn more about Sethe's past on the plantation and what life was like. Paul D and Sethe share some intimate moments, and Sethe feels more understood and supported than she has in a long time. She reveals the scars on her back, which she describes as being shaped like a tree, from when she was assaulted while pregnant, and her milk was taken from her. When the house shakes as Paul D kisses her scars, he scares the ghost away by aggressively swinging a coffee table. This angers Denver because he pushed away the only company she had in the house. As Denver grows more annoyed with Paul D's presence and his garnering of her mother's attention, we flash back again to her birth and parts of Sethe's journey to the Blue Stone house.

There are a lot of open holes in Sethe's story, which I am looking forward to filling in as we read more. It sounds like Sethe has a deep connection to motherhood and the weight she has borne. I am curious to learn more about the past of Sethe's lost daughter, her journey to the house on Blue Stone Road, life on the "Sweet Home" plantation, and how everyone's individual stories tie into each other in the novel!