Characters and Relationships
Sethe’s youngest daughter who was born as Sethe escaped Sweet Home.
Who is Denver?
Beloved’s return to 124 symbolizes the haunting power of this.
What is memory or the past?
Beloved is set after this major U.S. historical event.
What is the Civil War?
Morrison often interrupts the present narrative with one of these backward time shifts.
What is a flashback?
“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.” — This line personifies what?
What is the haunted house / the baby ghost?
This man once worked at Sweet Home and later lives with Sethe at 124.
Who is Paul D?
This color, appearing in blood and flowers, represents both trauma and passion.
What is red?
The name of the plantation where Sethe lived before escaping.
What is Sweet Home?
The memory of Sethe’s milk being stolen is triggered by seeing this man again.
Who is Paul D?
“I took and put my babies where they’d be safe.” — Sethe’s definition of “safe” means what?
What is freedom from slavery, even through death?
This ghostly figure returns to embody Sethe’s guilt and memory.
Who is Beloved?
Sethe’s act of killing her child represents both the horror and distortion of this human emotion.
What is maternal love?
Morrison based Beloved on the real-life story of this enslaved woman who killed her child to prevent recapture.
Who is Margaret Garner?
Morrison’s nonlinear time structure mirrors this psychological phenomenon.
What is trauma or repressed memory?
“That ain’t her mouth” — Paul D says this because he cannot accept what?
What is that Sethe killed her child?
She was once known as Jenny Whitlow and preaches self-love in the Clearing.
Who is Baby Suggs?
The number “124” is missing this digit, symbolizing the absence of the dead child.
What is “3”?
The Fugitive Slave Act meant that even in this state, Sethe was not truly free.
What is Ohio?
Paul D’s metaphor for his locked-away emotions and painful memories.
What is the tobacco tin (his heart)?
“Or maybe I couldn’t love ’em proper in Kentucky because they wasn’t mine to love.” — reveals what theme?
What is loss of maternal agency under slavery?
The man who ferries runaways across the river and later tells Paul D about Sethe’s act.
Who is Stamp Paid?
This symbol—linked to the chokecherry tree scar—shows how history is written on the body.
What is the scar/tree itself?
Morrison’s depiction of memory and haunting connects to this cultural belief in the ongoing presence of ancestors.
What is African spiritualism / ancestral memory?
On pages 174–180, this major event is retold from multiple perspectives.
What is the infanticide / Sethe killing her child?
“She was my best thing.” — This quote shows Paul D’s realization about what?
What is recognizing Sethe’s worth and humanity despite her past?