Response to Literature
Dialectical Journal for Beloved
Advanced Placement English Literature
Directions: While reading Beloved, complete a dialectical journal in your notebook of at least twenty entries that
explores how Toni Morrison uses legacy as a structural motif throughout the novel.
Due: First ten entries due 10/3. Second ten due 10/10.
Value: This is worth two assignment grades. More importantly, completing the dialectical journal will help you write
your major paper analysis of legacy as a structural motif.
How to Approach the Dialectical Journal:
 When participating in a reading response activity like a dialectical journal, the goal is for you to freely respond to
moments in the text that spark your interest, insight, and intellect.
 For those of you who have not completed a dialectical journal before, it’s quite simple. You make two columns.
In the left hand column, you copy a choice quote from the text with its page#, and in the right hand column, you
write your thoughtful and mature response.
 The quotes you pick should reveal something to you about how Morrison uses legacy in the novel. How do
events from the past show up in the novel? When does the past appear in the story? How does Morrison
represent the legacy of slavery? How do events from the past affect characters? How do characters represent
the past? How do characters discuss the past? How does the past relate to the novel’s imagery? What language
is used to represent the past? What literary devices are employed to represent the past?
Let’s get started. I have selected a quote from the novel that will spark some ideas about how Morrison uses legacy in
the novel. Read the quote and explain what it says about the legacy of the past. Glue this in your notebook as an entry.
Quote
Response
“It became a way to feed her. Just as
Denver had discovered and replied on
the delightful effect sweet things had
on Beloved, Sethe learned the
profound satisfaction Beloved got
from storytelling. It amazed Sethe (as
much as it pleased Beloved) because
every mention of her past life hurt.
Everything in it was painful or lost.
She and Baby Suggs had agreed
without saying so that it was
unspeakable; to Denver’s inquiries
Sethe gave short replies or rambling
incomplete reveries. Even with Paul
D, who had shared some of it and to
whom she could talk with at least a
measure of calm, the hurt was always
there – like a tender place in the
corner of her mouth that the bit left.”
p. 69
Here are some page numbers from 3-100 that have good quotes related to legacy: pp. 16-21, 24-28, 29-33, 43-44, 47-51, 54, 60-63,
68-75, 76-79, 80-86, 88-100. These sections contain many choice quotes about how the past affects the present. Try concentrating
on one or two, and pull multiple quotes out.