Beloved

Told from Sethe’s perspective in first person, this chapter reveals her feelings about the discovery that Beloved is her daughter. Sethe repeats the words, “She mine” (236) about Beloved. This lament forces Sethe to recall her past, especially her shame and confusion over her rape by the schoolteacher’s nephews. She recalls running away from Sweet Home and sending her children off with an unnamed figure who assists runaway enslaved people to freedom. Rather than accompany them, she decided, “I had to go back” (238) to look for Halle. For organizing her children’s escape, Sethe was beat so badly that she bit off a piece of her tongue. She also expresses her justification for trying to kill all her children: “My plan was to take all of us to the other side where my own ma’am is” (240). She reveals that she planned on killing all of her children and also herself.

Told from Denver’s perspective in first person, this chapter features her feelings about Beloved’s presence in her life and about her mother. She expresses fear and mistrust of Sethe after learning of Sethe’s attempt to kill all her children.