Beloved 236-277

 DISCLAIMER: I wrote this in my notes app on a plane so please be gentle with me. <3

The chapter begins with a declaration, “BELOVED, she is my daughter. She mine” (236). At this point the reader, knew this as well as Sethe but now it is more concrete and serves as the driving force for the next few chapters, and possibly the rest of the book (we’ll just have to wait and see!). Sethe is overjoyed that her daughter has returned and she has a change to explain her actions to her. Sethe begins to mirror Baby Suggs, the matriarch of the family, as she can now apprentice colors. The motif of the color red reappears when she says, “I don’t believe she wanted to get to red and I understand why because me and Beloved outdid ourselves with it (237). The color red and red heart continue to appear throughout the book as it references blood, murder, passion, and love. Even baby beloved had a pinkish headstone. Sethe’s transformation begins with he speaking directly to the reader and later Beloved. She explains that Beloved is hers and she is Beloved’s. Their too thick love for each other brought them back together. It even moved Paul D. out, both Sethe and Denver detail how Paul D. was in the way.

The next chapter begins with a similar, “BELOVED is my sister” (242). Denver declares that it is her duty to protect her sister Beloved. She wants to warn Beloved about Sethe and she lives in constant fear of Sethe killing her as well. Her external love was for her mother but her heart always longed for her father’s return. This part made me so sad because you could clearly see Denver’s child-like need for her father to recuse her. Denver’s section ends with her echoing Sethe’s statement that “She [Beloved] is mine” (247).

“I AM BELOVED and she is mine” (248). Wow guys, I really wasn’t expecting this one and boy was this chapter something else! There was no punctuation and most sentences were just fragments of thoughts. Beloved remembers a woman, flowers, crouching, men without skin, dead people, and teeth. Imagery of purgatory and reincarnation like, “we are all trying to leave our bodies behind” is paired with vivid memories of hoping to finally die and longing for the body of another who is also yourself. Really trippy stuff. Beloved wishes to bite a woman’s neck away which obviously references Sethe and sets before the reader her true intentions. The horror of this chapter is reflective of the middle passive with crammed suffering bodies and the ocean. The “iron circle around our neck” (250) is a metaphor for both the murder of Beloved and she shackles of slavery. The theme of water also comes into play in this chapter. Beloved recalls, “she goes in the water with my face”(252). Baptism and rebirth are both conjured by this memory as well as the water of the Atlantic. Beloved yearns for a “hot thing” which I think is representative of life and humanity. It could also possibly be love, which would go with the imagery of a woman (spoiler alert: Sethe) consuming her in an all consuming love.

The next chapter opens with the same “I AM BELOVED” as the last. However, the punctuation in this chapter could signify her becoming more alive as time progresses or we learn, along side her, more about her past. Her memory becomes more clear as she adds more coherent detail. The middle passage is again referenced with the imagery of “dead people pushed into the sea”(253). It then goes into a dialogue (in poetry form) between Sethe and Beloved, Denver and Beloved, and finally all three at once. It ends with “You are mine” three times. The themes of family, possession, and slavery are used fluidly and often in conjunction throughout this chapter.

The final two chapters of the reading return to our usual format but from Paul D.’s perspective. He is still at the church when we reflects on his escape and all the things that went horribly wrong. His lack of a permanent family acts as an antithesis to Sethe. The middle passage is once again harkened when Paul D questions what he would have been before Sweet Home and without Garner. He worries, “Or, God help him, on the boat?”(260). The thought of the middle passage is so horrific that even his situation at Sweet Home (before schoolteacher) warrants less of a reaction from Paul D. He repeats “But” (263) when listing all the things that when wrong before his escape. Stamp Paid offers to let Paul stay at his house, or anyone else in the community before sharing that he (maybe??) killed his wife, Vashti. Then, Paul remembers flashes of what is described by Beloved in her chapters. A lot to unpack here.