Top 2 Beloved quotes
“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.”
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 1
Beloved is divided into three parts, and each part begins with a description of the house. This quotation marks the beginning of the book, and it refers to the presence of a ghost that haunts the inhabitants of the house. The malicious presence of a ghost at the house seems to be evident to all who enter it, as evidenced by Paul D’s remark when he first enters the home. It is later learned that Sethe had killed her baby rather than have her grow up as a slave, and though Sethe is severely pained by her action, she chooses to go living for the benefit of her other children. Part two begins with the quote, “124 was loud,” and Part three begins with, “124 was quiet.”
“Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut.”
Paul D, Part One, Chapter 7
This quote from chapter 7 informs the reader of the repeated psychological traumas that Paul D has been forced to withstand due to his time as a slave. He refuses to divulge any further details about the time he had a bit in his mouth because he feels that revisiting those memories would be too much for him to handle. Through the course of the book, Paul D makes several references to this tobacco tin and puts forward his belief that slaves could not allow themselves to fully experience the spectrum of human emotion for the sake of their sanity.
