The old man says he no longer hears the voices around the house that he used to and that Beloved disappeared
in the chaos that followed Sethe’s attempted attack on Mr. Bodwin
. A small boy said he saw a naked woman running through the woods with fish for hair, but no one has seen her since.
What body part does Beloved lose?
Beloved: Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis
Beloved pulls
a tooth out of her mouth
without any appearance of pain. She is convinced that this means her body will start to fall apart into pieces, and she explains how she finds it hard to feel complete when Sethe is not around.
Where does Beloved go?
Beloved concludes with a group of women from the local community converging on 124 to ward off the ghost that has been haunting it. After Beloved disappears, Paul D returns
to the house
intending to make amends.
Why does Sethe attack bodwin and let Beloved disappear again?
She is determined to protect her daughter, but
Beloved interprets Sethe’s actions as yet another abandonment
, and so she disappears. To Sethe, who at this point in the novel, is close to being consumed by the physical manifestation of her guilt and sorrow, the arrival of Mr.
How does Paul D know Beloved is truly gone?
Paul D goes to 124.
He senses that Beloved is truly gone
. He enters the house looking for Sethe and finally finds her humming in the keeping room. He tries to talk to her but she seems crazy.
Why is Beloved losing her teeth?
By Toni Morrison
She tells Beloved that Sethe likes having Paul D around, that Sethe might get mad if Paul D gets driven away. Beloved’s upset, so
she reaches into the back of her mouth and pulls out a tooth
.
Why does Paul d sleep with Beloved?
Analysis. Beloved wants Sethe completely to herself, but her wish is thwarted as long as Paul D is in the picture. To change that scenario, she visits him in the
storeroom and manipulates him into having sex with her
, which she expects will drive a wedge between him and Sethe.
Is Beloved dead?
Although Beloved vanishes at the end of the book,
she is never really gone
—her dress and her story, forgotten by the town but preserved by the novel, remain.
What happened Beloved baby?
Only the third child, her older daughter, dies,
her throat having been cut with a handsaw by Sethe
. Sethe later arranges for the baby’s headstone to be carved with the word “Beloved.” The sheriff takes Sethe and Denver to jail, but a group of white abolitionists, led by the Bodwins, fights for her release.
What is Beloved a symbol of?
The character of Beloved embodies three generations of slavery and is a symbol of
the ghost of the more general historical past of slavery
just as she haunts the lives of her mother, Denver, and anyone else who comes in contact with family on Bluestone Road.
How was the community able to help expel Beloved from house 124?
Denver keeps Sethe alive, the community helps to expel Beloved, and Paul D supports Sethe by
telling her that she, and not her children
, is her own “best thing.” By dealing with the past, Sethe and Paul D secure the possibility of enjoying a future together.
Why is Beloved not a story to be passed on?
The phrase has several different connotations, depending on how one interprets the word “pass.” Morrison could be saying that this is not a story to “pass on”—that is, bequeath or hand down, passing from one person to the next—perhaps
because of its potential to re-ignite the horrors of slavery
.
Why does Paul D return to Sethe?
He wants to put his story next to hers. Here, the narrator explains that Paul D returns to Sethe
because he realizes she has a special quality
: She makes him feel better about himself. Sethe sees Paul D for who is, and just as importantly, helps him see the real Paul D, not the man debased by slavery.
Why did Paul D leave 124?
Stamp Paid chides Ella for not opening her own home to Paul D in a time of need. He rejects Ella’s criticisms of Sethe and
acknowledges that his own meddling
caused Paul D to leave 124.
Why is Denver lonely in Beloved?
The narrator explains that when Denver retreats to her special place in the woods, she obtains the nourishment she needs to survive the isolation of life in 124. Shunned by her peers and deserted by her brothers,
Denver has no friends or companionship
.
Why did Denver go deaf?
Denver had been studying there for a year when her classmate Nelson Lord upset her by asking, “Didn’t your mother get locked away for murder?” Denver repeated the question to her mother, but she went “deaf” before
she could hear an answer
. This deafness was cured by the sound of the baby ghost climbing the stairs.
