Beloved — Chapter-by-Chapter Notes
Use this as you read - important points and questions for each section
🏚️ Part I: The Haunting (1873)
The Arrival of Paul D
What Happens
- Sethe and her daughter Denver live at 124, which is haunted by a “baby ghost.”
- Paul D, a man from Sethe’s past at the Sweet Home plantation, arrives.
- He beats the ghost out of the house, offering a temporary sense of peace.
- Sethe remembers her escape from Kentucky and the “chokecherry tree” of scars on her back.
Important Points
- The Spite: 124 is “spiteful” because the past has not been dealt with. Paul D’s arrival forces the “rememories” to start surfacing.
- The Tin Box: Paul D has a “tobacco tin” in his chest where he keeps his feelings. He doesn’t want to open it.
Questions to Consider
- Why does Denver resent Paul D’s arrival?
- What does the “ghost” represent to the household before it becomes physical?
The Appearance of Beloved
What Happens
- On the way home from a carnival, Sethe, Denver, and Paul D find a young woman sitting on a stump.
- She says her name is Beloved. She is incredibly smooth-skinned, has new shoes, and acts like an infant in an adult body.
- She moves into 124 and becomes obsessed with Sethe.
Important Points
- The Physical Ghost: Beloved represents everything “repressed.” She has no “memory” of a life, yet she knows things about Sethe (like a song) that only her dead child would know.
- Sethe’s Milk: Sethe’s most traumatic memory is having her breast milk stolen by Schoolteacher’s nephews.
Questions to Consider
- How does each character (Sethe, Denver, Paul D) react differently to Beloved?
- Why is it significant that Beloved arrived “out of the water”?
📖 Part II: The Descent (Flashbacks and Monologues)
The Truth of the Misdeed
What Happens
- Stamp Paid (the man who helped Sethe escape) shows Paul D an old newspaper clipping.
- It reveals that years ago, when the slave catchers arrived in Cincinnati, Sethe took her children to a shed and tried to kill them all. She succeeded in killing one baby daughter.
- Paul D confronts Sethe. She doesn’t apologize, saying she was “putting her babies where they would be safe.”
- Paul D tells her, “Your love is too thick,” and leaves.
Important Points
- The Shed: This is the “unspeakable” event at the core of the book.
- Schoolteacher: He is the “scientific” slaveowner who wrote down Sethe’s “animal” traits. His arrival triggered Sethe’s panic.
Questions to Consider
- Is “thick love” a bad thing? Or is it the only way a mother could survive slavery?
- Why did morality “fall apart” in that shed?
The Interwoven Voices
What Happens
- The narrative style changes. We get three long, poetic monologues from Sethe, Denver, and Beloved.
- Their voices begin to merge: “I am Beloved and she is mine.”
- We learn more about the Sweet Home escape: Halle (Sethe’s husband) going mad after seeing Sethe’s milk stolen, and Sethe giving birth to Denver with the help of a white girl, Amy Denver.
Important Points
- The Middle Passage: Beloved’s monologue sounds like a memory of the slave ships—darkness, thirst, dead bodies. She is the ghost of all the “sixty million and more.”
- Identity Merging: 124 becomes a closed system. Sethe and the girls stop interacting with the world.
Questions to Consider
- How does Morrison use the language of these chapters to show that the characters are losing themselves?
- What is the significance of the “clearing” and Baby Suggs’s preaching?
🌳 Part III: The Clearing (The Resolution)
The Parasite
What Happens
- Beloved grows larger and stronger while Sethe withers away. Sethe has stopped working and spends all her money on food for Beloved.
- It is a “feeding” relationship; the ghost is literally eating Sethe’s life.
- Denver realizes she must leave the yard for the first time in years to get help.
Important Points
- Denver’s Heroism: Denver is the real survivor. She breaks the cycle of trauma by reaching out to the community (and the white family, the Bodwins).
Questions to Consider
- Why does Sethe let Beloved destroy her?
- What has changed in Denver that allows her to “go out”?
The Exorcism
What Happens
- Thirty women from the community gather outside 124 to pray and sing.
- Sethe sees Mr. Bodwin arriving and, in a flashback-induced panic, she tries to kill him (thinking he is Schoolteacher come back for her).
- This time, she tries to kill the attacker, not her child. The cycle is broken.
- Beloved vanishes.
Important Points
- The Sound: It wasn’t “logic” that saved Sethe, but the collective “sound” of the women.
- The Best Thing: Paul D returns to a broken Sethe. He tells her: “You your best thing, Sethe. You are.”
Questions to Consider
- Why does Beloved disappear?
- What does Paul D mean when he says Sethe is her own “best thing”?
📝 Your Notes
Write your reflections on “rememory” and the character of Beloved here:
Chapter-by-Chapter Notes created: 2025-12-25
For Great Literature 101 - Book 10 of 10