Study Questions

1. Why does Paul D object to Sethe’s apologizing for Denver’s behavior toward him?

2. Why does Sethe say she would choose Denver over Paul D if it came to that?

3. How does Beloved get to the stump near 124 Bluestone Road?

4. Why doesn’t Paul D press Beloved for more information after she gives her name?

5. What indications do we have that Beloved has become attached to Sethe?

6. How had Sethe obtained her crystal earrings?

7. Why had Sethe made her own “bedding” dress?

8. What materials did Sethe use to make the dress?

9. What does Sethe remember about her mother?

10. What had Nan told Sethe about her mother?

Answers

1. Paul D objects to Sethe apologizing to him for Denver’s behavior because he feels Denver is a grown woman and another can’t apologize for her. He wants Sethe to treat Denver as a grown woman.

2. Sethe says she would chose Denver over Paul D if it came to that because Denver is her child, no matter how old, and she feels a mother must always protect her child.

3. Beloved gets to the stump near 124 Bluestone Road by walking out of the stream behind the woods, resting that day and night, then spending the next day going through the woods to the field and eventually into the yard.

4. Paul D doesn’t press Beloved for more information after she gives her name because so many blacks were running from some kind of trouble after the end of the Civil War that he thought if she wanted them to know her situation, she would tell them without being asked.

5. The indications that Beloved has attached herself to Sethe are that she follows her with her eyes, hovers near Sethe if allowed to, and comes further and further up the road to meet Sethe at the end of her workday as she (Beloved) regains her strength.

6. Sethe had obtained her crystal earrings as a “bedding” present from her owner, Mrs. Garner, when she chose Halle and asked for a wedding—a request Mrs. Garner had ignored.

7. Sethe had made her own “bedding” dress because she was disappointed not to be having a wedding with a ceremony, a preacher, and a party. She felt she should at least have the dress.

8. The “bedding” dress had been made from stolen bits and pieces. The top was two pillow cases stolen from Mrs. Garner’s mending basket; a dresser scarf with a candle burn hole in it was the front of the skirt; one of Mrs. Garner’s old sashes scorched by being used to test the flat iron was the sash; and mosquito netting which had been used for straining jelly—then washed and soaked by Sethe—was the back of the skirt.

9. Sethe remembers that her mother, who had been allowed to nurse her for only a few weeks, once showed her the brand she had under her breast, and that she told Sethe she was the only person left alive who had this brand. Her mother was later hanged.

10. Nan revealed that Sethe’s mother did not name and threw away the baby she’d had from a white crew member on the ship bringing them to North America and did the same with the babies she’d had with other white men. Sethe is the only baby she’d kept and named.