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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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"Then schoolteacher arrived to put things in order. But what he did broke three more Sweet Home men and punched the glittering iron out of Sethe's eyes, leaving two open wells that did not reflect firelight." (11)
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This quote signifies the ling term slavery sufferings that the African Americans had to go through. The use of "glittering iron" is to convey that Sethe had some drive in being alive in the midst of being in slavery. Sadly, the slave master took that away.
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"What she called the nastiness of life was the shock she recieved upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the peices included her children." (28)
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This quote basically means that while being in slavery, your personal life isnt a concern to the White Americans. The fact that her kids weren't considered to live a life that was free, was very shocking and disgusting to her.
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"To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The "better life" she believed she and Devner were living was simply not that other one." (51)
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This quote not only describes the kind of person Sethe was in ghe beginning of the novel, but brings a thematic point about the past and how people in general deal with it. Based on this quote, Sethe was the kind of person to leave the past in the past simply because it wasnt worth what she has in the present time with Denver. The idea about how people in general keep the past in the past can ne down for how people deal with it.
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"For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you wouldnt have a little love left over for the next one." (54)
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The significance of this quote is to show how in slavery, having possession within something was impossible; technically a slave is owned by their slave master. Being owned means anything you have isnt yours as well. This is why it says having love left for tbe next one.
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"But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let anyone plan for the next day." (83)
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Sethe was unable to move on from the past even though she had the urging desire to stray away from it. This proves how the past never goes away in one's life even if they try to move on with their present lifeline.
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"Mister [a rooster] was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasnt allowed to be amd stsy what I was. Even if you cooked him, youd be cooking a rooster again, living or dead. Schoolteacher changed me. I was something else and that was something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub. " (86)
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"This quote shows the change around Sweet Home once the old slave owner dies, and the new one, who was known as the slave master, came about. From this quote, it was a turn for the worse.
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"And all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them.The dark, dark liver-love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize." (104)
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"This quote can be a peice of evidence to show how the past will always be apart of one's life regardless of the situation. Just a matter of accepting who you are in that.
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"Tell me something, Stamp.' Paul D's eyes were rheumy. Tell me this one thing. How much is a ****** supposed to take? Tell me. How much?'
'All he can, said Stamp Paid. 'All he can." (277) |
Through everything that slaves go through, they only can take so much in the experiences that go about. This shows the longterm effect of slavery and how it effects those in and out of it.
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"It was not a story to pass on." (323)
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As far as slavery, the story and the experiences that went about in one's life, is not a story to pass on to future generations." The idea of forgetting about the past after confirming it comes about in Sethe's scenario.
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"Everything hurts but her lungs most of all." (60)
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"This quote cam be classified as a description for Sethe being characterized as a baby. When a baby's born, it has to adapt to air because its so used to breathing and living inside of water.
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"124 was spiteful." (1)
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124 in this case can be described as a tension based setting where some form of revenge was lingering on the hous . It had somethinf to do with the ghost of Beloved.
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"124 was loud." (199)
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The term loud signifies that the women in the house now are able to speak their mind now that the truth is now our0t about what Sethe did and her purpose of doing so. It goes against the foest tkme 124 was described as being spiteful.
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"It became a way to feed her. Just as Denver discovered and relied on the delightful effect sweet things had on Beloved, Sethe learned the profound satisfaction Beloved got from storytelling." (69)
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This quote shows the connection that Beloved and Sethe had once she became a real human. It showed the connection with how not only Sethe played a motherly roll while Beloved played the characteristic of a baby because she was so attatched to what she was saying.
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"Belovd was shining and Paul D didnt like it." (76)
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The fact that Beloved was getting more attention than Paul D, it made him upset, therefore making him not liking it.
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"And not stopping them-looking and letting it happen. But my greedy braim says, Oh thanks, I'd love more-so i add more." (83)
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The mind has a mind lf its own. Even if one tries to control it, the mind does what it wants regardless. More memory, the more satisfied it is.
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"He would keep the rest where it belonged: in the tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be." (86)
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Paul D was the kind of person to lock his past away instead of thinking on it as Sethe does with her past. It shows the djfference between how people deal with the past as a whole.
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"She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She did not tell them they were blessed of the earth..." (103).
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This is a quote to show how Baby Suggs enlightens the slaves during the hard times in slavery.
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"I want you to touch me on the inside part and call me my name." (137)
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Beloved asked Paul D to proclaim her identity by calling her name. In a way, the quote can be made in a sexual manner only its both in this case between the two.
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"Red heart. Red heart. Over and over again. Softly and then so loud it woke Dever, then Paul D himself. Red hear, Red heart." (138)
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This was not only Paul D proclaiming Beloved's existence but also it was the return of Paul D's heart, the repetition of him saying RED.
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"I did it. I got us all out. Without Halle too. Up till then it was the only thimg I ever did on my own." (190)
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Sethe explains her reasoning as to why she killed her baby and tempted to kill her other kids but it wasnt enough time to do so. It was benefical to everyone including her children.
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"So you protected yourself and loved small." (191)
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Another peice of evidence that shows how to express ones love to something when technically its not yours when being within slavery.
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"He thought he had made it safe, had gotten rid of the danger; beat the **** out it; run it out off the place and showed it and everybody." (193)
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The point about how Paul D's importance towards 124 and what he did. He thought that the ghost was gone but apparently its still there, hence realizing that the baby is Beloved.
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"Now, too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke the Word, didnt count." (212)
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Paul D understands Sethe's reasoning as to why she killed Beloved. Regardless of how another solution can go, killing her was the only solution out at that point.
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"When Sethe locked the door, the women inside were free at last to be what they liked, see whatever they saw and say whatever was on their minds." (235)
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Now that everything was out and open, Sethe was now able to be free Amd open with herself as well as the ones around her like Denver, Beloved, and Paul D.
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"He is through with his song. He laughs. A rippling sound like Sethe's sons make when they tumble in hay or splash in rainwater." (266)
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In the midst of him being killed, he is expressing happy and joyful exoressions. As the fire goes up his body, the contradicting act him acting thus way shows going against the norm of slavery when usually everything all sad and spiteful.
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"I love my mother but I know she killed one of her own daughters, and tender as she is with me, I'm scared of her because of it." (242)
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Denver's now understanding why her mother killed her sister in the first place. It was a matter of loving her and fearing her in both a good way and a bad way.
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"Denver thought she understood the connection between her mother and Beloved." (295)
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Another peice of evidence showing how she now has clarity as far as the relationship her mother and Beloved has had with one another since she took on the physical form her other sibling.
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"Standing alone on the porch, Beloved is smiling. But now her hand is empty. Sethe is running away from her, running and she feels the emptiness in the hand Sethe has been holding." (309)
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Now that beloved has clarity of her identity as well as why her mother did what she did, her cares are now free. She no longer feels the weight on her shoulders of pursuing her purpose of becoming a young woman as a baby.
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"His coming is the reverse route of his going." (310)
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"The act of him returning to 124 to be with Sethe and Denver is the opposite reasoning of him leaving to get away from Sethe, Denver, and Beloved.
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"By and all trace is gone, and what is forgotten is not only the footprints but the water too and what it is down there." (323)
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Peice of evidence to show how after Beloved's gone, they now are slowly forgetting her as time goed by. Only the little things are rememered like the water and some footprints that cant bw identified.
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