AP Literature and Composition
Beloved
Parts I III (chapters)
The dedication page states, "Sixty Million and more." What is that a reference to and why does Morrison chose to post it? It's for all the slaves and people effected by slavery. This book is more of a memorial for those killed during slavery rather than a story about a family living through that time period.
What is your impression of Romans 9:25? Haunting. I feel like it was a great way to open the story. Man calling slaves his, which are not his and a mother calling her daughter beloved when she was anything but.
PART I
1. Why is color mentioned? "she used the little energy left her for pondering color." I think color is this women seeing beauty after so many years of seeing nothing beautiful at all. Also color could be a metaphor or symbol for the color of people. She was the master in the last few days of her life. She decide what color she wanted to see.
2. How is perspective shifted as Sethe contemplates time rather than the action? "ten minutes for seven letters." This is her paying for the engraving with her body. She shifts her thinking because she wishes she did more to get more for her beloved. She feels like the child deserved more but she was too selfish to stay long enough to get a proper engraving from the man.
3. "as lifeless as the nerves in her back where the skin buckled like a washboard." What can be inferred about the nerves? What is illustrated by this phrase? Her physical nerves on her back no longer can feel due to whatever caused the intense scaring. Similar to losing physical sense she lost a lot of emotional sense. She no longer feels the way a natural human feels. She is numb to a majority of the pain both physical and mental.
4. "followed her through the door straight into a pool of red and undulating light that locked him where he stood." 10 Explain the color and what it could represent. Red? I truly didn't pick up this metaphor. I think the pool of blood represented all the blood shed they experienced. Blood is such a strong color, it could represent Sethe and how she can easily face massive problems. She simple stepped over the red pool.
5. "And they took my milk!" 20 Who took what? Is there symbolism set in this phrase? What is it? Explain. Symbolize the men taking everything Seethe had. They stripped her of her motherhood, her childhood and her life. They took her milk. They not only beat her but they abused her sexually?
Thought Questions:
Discuss the how and why slave families were broken up: families, parents, history Families split due to slave owners not caring if you were a family or not. You are property, family didn't matter. Families also get a little confusing due to having multiple wives, husbands, and children. Everything was a mess because their lives where treated like cattle, cattle reproduce and get split up and get killed. Causing a messy family tree. This also isn't including the affairs white's had with...
