Focus: What do the opening scenes of Beloved reveal to us? What do they conceal?
1. Announcements!
2. Warm-up: Finding patterns in each other's Beloved metacognitives by creating handmade Wordles
3. Socratic Seminar: Beloved, Chapters 1 and 2
HW:
1. Complete a draft of your critical review essay by Wednesday.
2. Read Beloved, Chapters 3, 4, and 5 for Monday's Socratic seminar; for your reading ticket, please focus on ONE character (you may include the house as a character). Type three passages that reveal something about that character, and then type three questions you have about this character. Leave plenty of space in between each passage and question.
Why do you think the grandma is named Baby? Significant?
ReplyDeleteNames all seem to have significance, Beloved for example- probably not the real name of the child. Wondering about the reasoning.
All the men in the House (or most) named Paul
Thought was interesting that they were all from the Sweet Home, Sethe recognizes him as Paul D, distinctly remembers each even though they are all Pauls
Could be representative of the view white men have on black men, that they don’t really have an identity to the white men but to each other they do
Word coloredpeople and whitegirl both used as one word in the book, shows the connectedness of that idea in society
Classification rather than name
Why does Halle have a name other than Paul?
Family Tree: Baby Suggs- Mother of Halle (had 8 children with 6 fathers)
Halle- in relationship with Sethe, Denver’s father (father of all 4 children)(stated that this is rare and “lucky”)
*Family life is very perverted by the structure of slavery*
Current Setting: 1873- Two boys have run off, Baby Suggs has died, slavery has been abolished
What is the significance of the tree on her back?
Choke tree, perhaps play on words about hanging
Family tree, seems to be emphasized and goes back to the idea of family perversion
Tree imagery throughout
Physical reminder of her slavery, still has it and still painful but hasn’t seen it
Metaphorically on her back- it is behind her
Why do you think it was called Sweet Home?
Given the name by the owners, called the slaves men, makes them feel better about themselves
Ethnic notions, the happy plantation idea
On page 10, Ghost imagery, what is the significance? Why was it included?
Undulating- gives the red some life, the light is there and it is not just still light of the floor, still alive, still hurting—pulsing red light, again life imagery
How does the ghost strike you?
A memory, follows her trying to remember something
Denver is lonely and likes having the ghost around
What does Sethe think of the ghost?
Because the ghost is her child, she is unable to separate herself from that or the house
She says she can’t run away from anything anymore.
Trying to maybe punish herself by making herself stay
Pg 5, She is so in love and attached to the baby who is haunting the house
Do you think it is really love?
Doesn’t seem to be love, more some other sort of connection.
A haunted house is always haunted due to a death there. EAP “Tell Tale Heart”- still feels the dead guy in the house even after they are gone, that is what compels them to stay
Paul D seems to have a power over Beloved. Beloved has a powerful presence but when he comes in he is able to change things.
Why do you think that is?
When he shows up, Sethe has other memories in her brain aside from just the loss of her baby. When he comes back, repressed memories begin to arise again.
Strange sex scenes throughout to show the perversion of slavery. Relatively normal sex scene when Paul D shows up.
Predictions:
Think Beloved will somehow kill Paul D.
Why does she feel a hate toward Paul?
She is fueled by Sethe’s memory of her, also he is a new man in her mother’s life bringing her some sort of happiness.
Paul D had a way with women that he was able to get emotion out of anyone. How pure are his intentions?
Starts to say things to her and about her out of disgust rather than love.