BELOVED Preview, AP Lit
ATC, Mrs. Celestino
You will keep a Beloved Preview Journal using questions # 1-8 below as prompts. Journals will be graded on
the ACE plan,(ANSWER, CONSIDER, ELABORATE). Answer the question asked, Consider seriously the passage
& its possible many meanings and interpretations, Elaborate Extensively to explain and strengthen your
argument
1. What do you think Baby Suggs means when she says, “What’d be the point [of moving?]... Not a house
in this country ain’t packed to the rafters with some dead Negro’s grief. We lucky this ghost is a baby.”
(pg 6)
2. Write a journal entry as Sethe or Denver, describing how you feel about Paul D’s arrival. How do you
think it will change life in 124? ( pg 3-23)
3. What new information do we learn about Sweet Home in this chapter, specifically about Denver’s
birth? 34-51
4. Retell the night of Denver’s birth, from Amy’s point of view. (34-51)
# 5 & 6 (Pg 52-59) For each of these explain:
a. What does it tell us literally about the characters and what they are experiencing?
b. What is significant about the quote? Does it have a deeper meaning than the one it holds in this
context?
c. Does it contain any literary devices that make it beautiful or interesting?
5. “Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was
dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to
love just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have
enough love left over for the next one.” 54
6. “They were not holding hands, but their shadows were.” 56
7. Do a close reading of pg 56-59 “Up and down the lumberyard fence the roses were dying…..the
shadow of the people still held hands.” ( 56-59)
a. What literary devices are used and to what effect?
b. What is the tone? What words suggest this?
c. What phrases seem “strong” ,mean more that their literal meaning? What do you think they
may suggest?
8. Pg 60 Describe the woman who walks out of the water. Who do you think she is? Explain.
Following are the FRQ’s of past AP Lit Exams that have listed Beloved in the choices. Underline the main, crucial
words in EACH prompt. Choose one prompt and write an outline with specifics for answering.
1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an
essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the
work. Avoid plot summary.
1999. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, "No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what
a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a
contrary direction at the same time."From a novel or play choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind
is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a wellorganized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict with one character illuminates
the meaning of the work as a whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or work of
similar literary quality.
2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote
Much madness is divinest SenseTo a discerning EyeNovelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's
apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain
what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the
"madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
2002, Form B. Often in literature, a character's success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and divulging it
only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a
well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character's choice to reveal or keep the secret
affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may select a work from the list below, or you
may choose another work of recognized literary merit suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a short story, poem, or
film.
2003. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they
seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of
grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning." Select a novel or play in
which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how
the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.