Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille 3
L2 S4 2007/ Oltarzewska
Beloved, Toni Morrison – TD
Beloved 148-150
Model Commentary : plan and execution
A commentary on a passage from a novel/ philosophical essay should pay attention to the
following :
i.
Context : At what point in the plot (Beloved) does this passage occur ? How does it fit
into the overall scheme of the novel ? What are the themes it highlights or develops ?
Does it introduce new themes, characters, elements of plot ? How does it link what
comes before and what comes immediately after ? Here you will need to be brief. (The
questions « How/ What/ Why/ When/ Where ? » can be useful here.)
ii.
Thesis statement : this should appear in your introduction and underlie your reading
of the passage throughout. It should guide your reading and shape your assignment.
Finding an original and analytical thesis is probably the most difficult part of the
assignment ; this is a statement that must be supported by a detailed reading : it is
not a simple repetition of the principal themes of the novel/ essay. For instance, in the
passage from Beloved, you will avoid a thesis statement such as : « This passage
illustrates the forms of extreme behaviour slavery can give rise to ». This statement,
while true, is obvious and does not teach us anything. Similarly, you will not want to
stress the « cruel behaviour of the white masters (the four horsemen) » since this is
evident on even the most superficial reading. Your introduction should isolate an idea
which is specific to the passage and helps the reader make sense of it or read it in a
new way.
Sample theses :
1. « This passage dramatizes the fact that a slave’s life and experience were not her own as
the story of Sethe’s killing is seen through the eyes of the four horsemen and recounted in
their words. »
2.
« The literary devices of diction (words used) and narrative voice are used to underline
the dominant white conception of a slave’s uses and worth. »
3. « The emphasis on eyes and looking underlines the importance of sight/ blindness as
organizing themes in the novel. »
iii.
When you have dealt with the above, and briefly summarised the literal content of
the passage, it is time for the detailed work of close reading and interpretation. Here
you have a choice : either you deal with the passage sequentially, in a line-by-line
manner, isolating and commenting on those stylistic features which catch your
attention and support your overall understanding of the text (thesis statement) or you
deal one-by-one with the different categories that together contribute to the texture of
the passage (theme, imagery, style, diction etc). With a line-by-line commentary, you
risk repeating yourself and losing the thread of your argument amid a mass of
examples – your commentary should not resemble a shopping list. This is why it may
be better to opt for the second method, which gives a clear progression to your work.
Close reading involves a detailed exploration of the following :

Theme : what are the major themes present in this passage, and how do they connect
with the wider thematics of the novel as a whole ? (In Beloved 148-150, we would isolate
the themes of sight/ blindness, violence, dispossession, the slave/animal analogy, the
dehumanisation of Black experience, madness). You must support this list with detailed
reference to the text and include a sentence which links this section to your main thesis.

Word choice or diction : what kind of words are used ? Are they common, elegant, or
crass (vulgar) ? Why ? Is the style of the passage oral, or rather literary and formal ?
(This involves a consideration of register). Is the language predominantly abstract or
concrete ? Is there repetition of words or similar words ? Do these constitute a
lexical/semantic field ? What is the effect produced by these repetitions, or the wider
purpose served by this lexical field ? (Always relate your remarks to your major thesis
statement). In Beloved 148-150 we would need to talk about the word « nigger » (used at
least ten times) – at once a sign of the text’s ‘spoken’ tone and a firm indication of the
contempt of the white captors, as well as evidence that theirs is the dominant point of
view. The anaphoric « you » (impersonal pronoun 6-7, 14-15, 19-20) conveys immediacy
and again signals the « oral » quality of the passage – we are hearing a « collective » voice
or consciousness belonging to the four horsemen. Note the familiar, colloquial register of
expressions such as « Right off it was clear… », « …cut and run. » The words « look »
and « eyes », used throughout, merit close attention. Who is looking, who is looked at ? Is
the look innocent, or are power relations actualised in the process of looking ? What
reaction do the « nigger eyes » (final paragraph) inspire ?

Sentence structure : This is closely related to the above, but here you are dealing with an
extended lexical unit or phrase. Are sentences long or short ? Are the sentences
expository, polemical, rhetorical questions, analytical ? In Beloved 148-150, sentence
structure is extremely important in conveying the overall sense of the passage.
Incomplete sentences are frequent : « Smile even… » (13) « Grab the rifle… » (17), « Or
Chipper, or Samson » (paragraph 4), « Enough nigger eyes for now » (paragraph 7) This
incompletion suggests that we are reading free indirect discourse – the text transcribes the
four horsemen’s thoughts (schoolteacher’s in para 4, nephew’s in para 5). The sentence
fragments make us realize that the story is being seen through the eyes of the catchers, we
are never given access to the thoughts of the slaves. Incompletion also translates the speed
with which events are happening and the four horsemen’s limited comprehension of the
bloody scene they witness in the shed. Notice the oral quality echoed in the sentence
structure : « What she go and do that for ? »

Punctuation : Are there many commas, full stops, semi-colons ? What might this
indicate ? Note the presence of dashes in the text, indicating, once again, a spoken,
breathless, parenthetical rhythm, as sentences are broken up into fragments ; we are
following someone’s thoughts and the action is rapid.

Voice : Who is speaking ? From whose point of view is the story being told ? This is a
very important point to establish in the context of Toni Morrison’s writing, as she often
uses the device of free indirect discourse to express characters’ thoughts. In Beloved
148-150, it is not at first obvious that the story is being told through the eyes of the four
horsemen – the first indication we get is in paragraph 1, (l 5), with the phrase : « … likely
as not the fugitive would make a dash for it. » The expression « likely as not » has a
strong oral flavour ; it is idiomatic and also expresses probability (we could replace it
with the expression « very probably ») ; this indicates that we are hearing one of the
characters assess a situation which they have experienced several times before. This
becomes even clearer in the following sentence, with the phrase « you could never tell »,
where we have the impression we are being addressed directly by one of the catchers or
sheriff, as they recount their previous experiences of slave-catching. One way to talk
about voice in narrative has been elaborated by the French literary critic Gérard Genette
(and in the work of Mieke Bal and Dorrit Cohn). Genette has coined the term
« focalisation » to describe narratorial point of view or perspective : we can identify two
major types of focalisation : internal (when the story is being told by a character in the
story) and external, when the story is being told by a narrator (or narrative instance) who
plays no part in the story but views it from the outside. Here we are given an excellent
example of internal focalisation, (the thoughts of a collective « catching » consciousness,
schoolteacher, nephew, and finally the triad schoolteacher-nephew-catcher).