Chapter 15-16
Before we begin, let’s clarify the action of 15
 there is a party, Baby Suggs decides to invite people to come to celebrate the fact that Sethe came with the
boys
 there were 90 people, members of the congregation, the Black society
 there was resentment that BS could have so much excess, prosperity, the house, her children, etc.
o why were people resentful? isn’t that a strange reaction for people who just enjoyed
themselves?
 124 was not haunted, it was happy
 the pies were growing beyond the number of berries available
 BS seems special, not normal, since she is able to sense things that are not there and she has the clearing
o why had she gotten there but others had not
o what is sad about this? --their whole lives are shadowed by slavery; they are starting to show
that they view themselves in a lower plane (and see BS as trying to go too far beyond her
status)
o what makes Sethe so special? their resentment maube is for that new woman
o I could not have this party, why should you be able to?
o even though they are no longer in chains, there is perhaps still the set of chains in their
minds/heart/souls; internal repression
o step away frfom slavery, but now they are brought right back to the cycle of slavery
o BS does not let herself be dehumanized—she does not give up her name, her spirit, always
keeps herself to the way she wants to be…But what about her end? she falls apart. Sethe calls
her a liar;
o but BS even questions her own freedom! she does not under
 124: this is the last time people came here and enjoyed it
 Mr. Garner is an interesting character: is he really nice, does it matter?
Ch 15 ends with BS talking about going to
READING 16 aloud paragr by paragr
1) whose voice is the narrator? slavecatcher—how do we know?
a. the people whom we know as people are described as animals, protperty
b. “house on Bluestone Road” not 124; there is no owning, identity for it
c. the way the slave catcher viewed the dead slave—not as a dead person! not the state of death,
the end of life; the Fugitive Slave Law really puts weight on this scene—it is the power of
these men coming
2) the use of the n-word, the crazy women
a. one of the options was silence for our paper—but here the slavecatcher uses the silence to
b. this is ht epoint where everythin good turns ba
3) the baby being swung is Denver, who survives because she is caught by SP; but she was swung in an
attempt to kill her—does Denver know this???? not in what we’ve seen of her memory—is this what
Denver heard before she went deaf for 2 years? D was silent
a. why would SP and BS let S kill her children; wouldn’t they have heard her doing something in
the shed? what would they have heard?
b. we are asking ourselves why it is that Sethe was trying to kill Denver: maybe she reminds S of
all the bad things that happened to her in the barn at Sweet Home; S was pregnant with D at
that time when she was raped…
c. we have not heard SP grunt; haven’t heard BS stand still
d. back to chapter 14 “unless carefree, mother love was a killer” – S can’t live with the pain of
missing her children
e. is SP saving D b/c he knows she will be free, given what Schoolteacher says?
f. why is D/S more affected by the baby/Beloved than by her brothers