Lit Circle Meeting 2

Objectives:
● Discuss symbolism and thematic development within the second (and first) reading,
using discussion questions created by the producer as a guide.
● Examine close reading samples provided by the producer.
● Create graphic organizers related to character development
○ These should include characteristics, quotes, and images or symbols related to
the character(s)
Discussion Questions:
Symbolism:
● Chapter 5 begins by saying,
“A fully dressed woman walked out of the water.”
What is the symbolic significance of this line, especially in relation to the rest of
Chapter 5?
● Beloved’s skin is described as new, lineless, and smooth. What could this mean
in a symbolic sense?
● On page 72, Sethe recalls that her mother once told her that she would be able
to identify her by the circle and cross burned into her skin on her ribs. What could
this mean, especially considering the discussion of Sethe as “marked for
greatness” in the last meeting?
● In the same scene, it is revealed that Sethe asked her mother to be marked in
much the same way, not understanding the gravity of what she had asked for
until she actually had her own marking. Does this support the ideas established
in the discussion of the last question?
● On the first page of Chapter 7, the table that Paul D had formerly broken has
been mended, with its “mended legs stronger than before.” What could this
symbolize?
● What could the black dress and shoes symbolize?
● At the carnival, there is great emphasis placed on the nearby roses, with their
appearance, smell, and origins being described in considerable detail. What
could this mean?
Character Development:
● What do the interactions between Sethe and Beloved in Chapter 6 imply about
the future of their relationship?
● Denver and Beloved seem to be forging an increasingly friendly relationship
throughout the reading. What could this mean?
● Who is Beloved?
● On pages 104 - 105, Baby Suggs says that,
“Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed and broke my heartstrings
too. There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks.”
What does this statement reveal about her character?
● Paul D shows a growing mistrust of Beloved throughout the reading. How does
this characterize him? Does it establish him as a foil for another character?
Character Interaction Chart
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj Sethe Denver Paul D Beloved Stamp Ella Amy Baby

llllllllllllllllllllll Paid Suggs
Sethe jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
llllllllllllllllllllll
Denver jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
jlllllllllllllllllllll
Paul D jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
jlllllllllllllllllllll
Beloved jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
Stamp jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
Paid llllllllllllllllllllll
Ella jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
Amy jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
Baby jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj
Suggs llllllllllllllllllllll
Beloved Close Reading:
Read the following excerpt from Beloved, drawing conclusions from it concerning the objectives
of the meeting (symbolism and characterization).
Pages 82 - 84
“If he is alive, and saw that, he won’t step foot in my door. Not Halle.”
“It broke him, Sethe.” Paul D looked up at her and sighed. “You may as well know it all.
Last time I saw him he was sitting by the churn. He had butter all over his face.”
Nothing happened, and she was grateful for that. Usually she could see the picture right
away of what she heard. But she could not picture what Paul D said. Nothing came to mind.
Carefully, carefully, she passed on to a reasonable question.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“Not a word?”
“Not a word.”
“Did you speak to him? Didn’t you say anything to him? Something!”
“I couldn’t, Sethe. I just… couldn’t.”
“Why!”
“I had a bit in my mouth.”
Sethe opened the front door and sat down on the porch steps. The day had gone blue without
its sun, but she could still make out the black silhouettes of trees in the meadow beyond. She
shook her head, resigned to her rebellious brain. Why was there nothing it refused? No misery,
no regret, no hateful picture too rotten to accept? Like a greedy child it snatched up everything.
Just once, could it say, No thank you? I just ate and can’t hold another bite? I am full God damn
it of two boys with mossy teeth, one sucking my breast the other holding me down, their
book-reading teacher watching and writing it up. I am still full of that, God damn it, I can’t go
back and add more. Add my husband to it, watching, above me in the loft—hiding close by—the
one place he thought no one would look for him, looking down on what I couldn’t look at at all.
And not stopping them—looking and letting it happen. But my greedy brain says, Oh thanks, I’d
love some more—so I add more. And no sooner than I do, there is no stopping. There is also
my husband by the churn smearing the butter as well as its clabber all over his face because
the milk they took is on his mind. And as far as he is concerned, the world may as well know it.
And if he was that broken then, then he is also and certainly dead now. And if Paul D saw him
and could not save him or comfort him because the iron bit was in his mouth, then there is still
more that Paul D could tell me and my brain would go right ahead and take it and never say, No
thank you. I don’t want to know or have to remember that. I have other things to do: worry, for
example, about tomorrow, about Denver, about Beloved, about age and sickness not to speak
of love.
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 alone plan for, the next day. Exactly like that afternoon in the
wild onions—when one more step was the most she could see of the future. Other people went
crazy, why couldn’t she? Other people’s brains stopped, turned around and went on to
something new, which is what must have happened to Halle. And how sweet that would have
been: the two of them back by the milk shed, squatting by the churn, smashing cold, lumpy
butter into their faces with not a care in the world. Feeling it slippery, sticky—rubbing it in their
hair, watching it squeeze through their fingers. What a relief to stop it right there. Close. Shut.
Squeeze the butter. But her three children were chewing sugar treat under a blanket on their
way to Ohio and no butter play would change that.
Paul D stepped through the door and touched her shoulder.
“I didn’t plan on telling you that.”
“I didn’t plan on hearing it.”
“I can’t take it back, but I can leave it alone,” Paul D said.
He wants to tell me, she thought. He wants me to ask him about what it was like for
him—about how offended the tongue is, held down by the iron, how the need to spit is so deep
you cry for it. She already knew about it, had seen it time after time in the place before Sweet
Home. Men, boys, little girls, women. The wildness that shot up into the eye the moment the lips
were yanked back. Days after it was taken out, goose fat was rubbed on the corners of the
mouth but nothing to soothe the tongue or take the wildness out of the eye.
Sethe looked up into Paul D’s eyes to see if there was any trace left in them.
“People I saw as a child,” she said, “who’d had the bit always looked wild after that.
Whatever they used it on them for, it couldn’t have worked, because it put a wildness where
before there wasn’t any. When I look at you, I don’t see it. There ain’t no wildness in your eye
nowhere.”
“There’s a way to put it there and there’s a way to take it out. I know em both and I
haven’t figured out yet which is worse.”

Lit Circle Meeting 2

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Lit Circle Meeting 2

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Objectives:

Character Interaction Chart

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlljjj Sethe Denver Paul D Beloved Stamp Ella Amy Baby

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