Beloved 20, 21, 22
Quote of the day: “Slavery broke the world in half, it borke it in every way. It broke Europe. It made them
into something else, it made them slave master, it made them crazy. You can’t do that for hundred of years
and it not take a toll. the had to dehumanize, not just the slaves but themselves. They had to reconstruct
everything in order to make that system appear true. It made everything in World War II possible. It made
that system appear true. It made World War I necessary. Racism is the word that we use to encompass all
this.”
Respond to this quote, using what is in the novel and history and whatever else you’d like.
class initial thoughts:
 Morrison thought that WWII and all the wars were b/c pppl believed that others were lower than
themselves
 “slavery dehumanized the slaveowners as much as the slaves” – like lynching
 connects Am’s history & to our class’ history (we are more connected to WWII than to slavery, and so
this give us a clearer sense of what she is trying to convey to us)
 it is really easy to question whether something WAS right, but harder to think IS this right before we do it
o the system was one that they believed in, so they found ways to rationalize it
o and yet that split between ourselves almost breaks us, it is difficult to repair
o “you can’t do that for hundred of years and it not take a toll”—this connects to why there is
racism still today; what history has taught us is that what event shave occurred creates ideas
that we hold (stereotypes, etc.) – there is a legacy
o slavery set a precedent, so that made a lot of the same feelings and indifference capable
o the three wars (Civil War, WWI, WWII) were some of the most devastating in history, so the
fact that they began with a feeling of superiority over others shows the power of that
o “slavery broke the world in half..in every way” broke us physically, emotionally, broke Sethe’s
family apart
o we are reading a lot of the history of America—it would be interesting to compare how it
affected Europe
o dehumanize not just the slaves but themselves—I would have to take away every single one of
my values in order to be able to do something like this
o Stamp Paid really displayed this (Morrison’s intent was to show this): last page chapter 19: “It
was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread. In, though after life”
o to treat someone like an animal, you have to yourself act like an animal (to rape innocent
women, for ex) – but a decent person wouldn’t do to their animals what they did to their
slaves!
19—end of the chapter we get a window into Stamp Paid’s thoughts
Cohen reads the large paragraph and the one that follows
(“The day Stamp Paid saw the two backs”)
What’s the focus of these 2 paragraphs?
 how dehumanization is fabricated, how it works
 dehumanizn of white ppl
 dehumzn is a cycle
Kids work in groups and look at each of the chapters:
Whose thoughts are these?
What’s the focus and why?
Going back to 19, last lines: “Almost. Mixed in with the voices surrounding he house, recognizable but
undecipherable to SP, were the thought of the women of 124, unspeakable thoughts, unspoken.”
Q: What are 20, 21, 22 doing, in light of this quote???
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these are thoughts that they would never say to each other but are saying within their minds
questioning whether the person S killed was Beloved; B might be a part of S & D—maybe B is the
thoughts, the soul, the part of each of the person that is missing
S & D are pretty sure who B is. So their thoughts are an attempt to create a past and a future based
on the idea they have of the present (that B is the baby girl)
o this relates to memory & how we do remember
o we can hear stories and believe those as our memories, some of it is made up!
o B is playing a role for each person, being who each one wants them to be
o in the film Big Fish the viewer has to believe what s/he would like to believe
o if B were to leave, S & D would be in really bad shape; they haven’t dealt with past
o B can represent all these former slaves…the lack of punctuation can reflect a lack of
education, or she is really greedy in this chapter, so maybe it is one run-on sentence to get
all of her ideas out (there is even no punct at the end, so her ideas keep going); also it can
represent the chaotic nature of her energy. The only period is after “I am Beloved and she
is mine.”
o B coming back is forcing S & D to relive the story, forcing them to decide what to do in
the future, given a larger understanding of what had happened.
o Morrison is pushing us to wonder what will happen to create a resolution to this issue.
o “a hot thing” can be a way for a 2 yr old to say how she feels; hot thing can be the slave
ship itself (it is tight, crowded, Beloved was born there)—what was born on the slave ship
(slavery, the whole institution, dehumanization—so B as a person/spirit was born there,
so she represents everything that was taken away from each person)—the slave ship set
the tonoe for slavery, hunting people down, holding people, telling them what to do,
when, the slavers did not care
Read 23 along with Morrison on the tape
 22 is the thoughts of the emotions of the dead baby & this 23 is the real thoughts
 B & S have the same face (I love your face means I love my own face)
 B knew for certain that “she is mine” (only period in 22) and now here she is certain
 whenever the creepy voice came, it could have been Denver, but is also could have been Sethe or B!
 that is just a voice of anger (so it could be anyone’s anger)
 20-23 everyone is trying to claim ownership, but Denver doesn’t have anything for herself
o who would want to claim ownership, why want to own this, why have it?
 S & B seem to connect so much
o my face is your face – seems they are identifying each other in each other
o B can be coming back to remind S of things about S, about her identity
o