Journal
Students will keep a journal as they read, answering questions of varied difficulty to track comprehension and interpretation. Journal questions will be assigned with each night’s reading, and judged based on the following criteria.
____
Does the journal entry:
-
* answer the question asked?
-
* stick to the text, using at least one quote?
-
* elaborate to explain and strengthen its argument?
-
* provide the journal writer’s opinion?
-
* sound like the journal writer means it?
____
At the beginning of each class, I hold a brief discussion of the previous night’s journal questions, and check to see that each student has completed their questions. At the end of the unit, students self-evaluate their journal entries, based on the five questions above, and write me a letter in their journal about the quality of their entries. I then read the journal entries in their entirety and respond to their self-evaluations. The final journal grade is the test grade for the unit. The sum of daily journal checks become their homework average.
____
Other teachers may find this volume of journal questions cumbersome; it is the backbone of my teaching of the book. Journal writing allows students a meaningful, intellectually varied, independent approach to their own reading. The sharing of journal entries often seems less threatening to shy students than jumping into open-ended discussion of the book. If it does not seem a useful tool in its complete form, some of these questions can be used to stimulate discussion, as writing assignments, or selections can be made from among them in a less extensive journal. I include them all to give teachers greater choice in how to use this resource.
____
The “chapters” of Beloved (frustratingly untitled and unnnumbered) are of varying lengths. Many are very short. I recommend breaking the novel up into nightly or weekly reading assignments which last no longer than three weeks. Students will burn out on a novel read any more slowly.
____
These questions are designed to tap into the learning styles of diverse students. The questions should range from comprehension to interpretation. My main strategies for moving students into reflective writing on what they’ve read are to ask them: to interpret a specific quote; to find a quote to back up an opinion they have about the text; to retell passages from a new point of view; to explain the motivation or emotion behind a character’s actions or words; or to appreciate the author’s use of language.
Book One
pages 3-19
1. Write a journal entry as Sethe or Denver, describing how you feel about Paul D’s arrival. How do you think it will change life in 124?
2. What do you think Baby Suggs means when she says, “What’d be the point [of moving?]... Not a house in this country ain’t packed to the rafters with some dead Negro’s grief. We lucky this ghost is a baby.” (5)
20-27
What are Paul D and Sethe remembering about Sweet Home?
Why do you think Morrison gives us the information little bit by little bit?
28-42
What new information do we learn about Sweet Home in this chapter, specifically about Denver’s birth?
Retell the night of Denver’s birth, from Amy’s point of view.
43-50
For each of the following quotes, explain:
a. What does it tell us literally about the characters and what they are experiencing?
b. What is significant about the quote? Does it have a deeper meaning than the one it holds in this context? Does it contain any literary devices that make it beautiful or interesting?
1. “Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. 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, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have enough love left over for the next one.” (45)
2. “They were not holding hands, but their shadows were.” (4)
50-56
Describe the woman who walks out of the water. Who do you think she is? Explain.
Explain who is being discussed in the following quote, and why you think it is significant:
“If there had been an open latch between them it would have closed.” (56)
57-63
What does Sethe remember about her mother? Why does it upset her to remember? Why do you think Beloved keeps asking her questions?
64-73
Explain what information the following quote provides about both characters:
“Beloved was shining and Paul D didn’t like it.” (62). Make a prediction about what will happen in the future based on the events between them in this chapter.
What new information do we learn about Sweet Home in this chapter? What information can you guess at which is not clearly revealed?
74-85
Who does Denver think Beloved is? How does she feel about it?
Why do you think both girls are so interested in the story of Denver’s birth?
86-105
Why does Sethe go to the Clearing?
Describe the gatherings which used to take place in the Clearing.
Find a quote which reveals how Beloved feels about Sethe.
Find a quote which reveals how Denver feels about Beloved.
106-113
“Eighty-six days and done. Life was dead. Paul D beat her butt all day every day until there was not a whimper in her.” (109)
How does this quote explain Paul D’s emotions while on the chain gang?
Why does Morrison compare Paul D’s heart to a “tobacco tin lodged in his chest”? What does this metaphor tell us about his emotions?
114-117
Explain the significance of the quote: “She moved him.” (114)
118-124
Write a journal entry as Denver, explaining how you feel about Beloved. What are you afraid she will do? How does she make you happy?
125-132
How is Paul D’s problem sleeping in the house solved? What predictions can you make about the future of the conflict between Paul D and Beloved?
133-134
What is starting to happen to Beloved? Why do you think she cries?
135-147
Explain what the following quote refers to, and what its significance is:
“Her friends and neighbors were angry at her because she had overstepped, given too much, offended them by excess.” (138)
“And when she stepped foot on free ground she could not believe that Halle knew what she didn’t; that Halle, who had never drawn one free breath, knew that there was nothing like it in this world. It scared her.” (141)
147-153
Who thinks this to himself? “But now she’d gone wild, due to the mishandling of the nephew who’d overbeat her and made her run.” (149)
What is he talking about? Do you agree with him?
154-158
Imagine you are Paul D walking home from talking to Stamp Paid. What have you just found out? What are your feelings towards Sethe? Will you talk to her? If so, what will you say?
159-165
For each of the following quotes, explain:
a. What does it tell us literally about the characters and what they are experiencing?
b. What is significant about the quote? Does it have a deeper meaning than the one it holds in this context? Does it contain any literary devices that make it beautiful or interesting?
“So you protected yourself and loved small. ...A woman, a child, a brother -- a big love like that would split you wide open in Alfred, Georgia.” (162)
“”You got two feet, Sethe, not four,” he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; trackless and quiet.” (165)
Book Two
169-199
Was Stamp Paid right to tell Paul D about Sethe’s past? He argues with himself about it. Give one reason it was a good idea, and one that is was a bad idea. What do you think?
“Now, too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke the Word, didn’t count. They came in her yard anyway and she could not approve or condemn Sethe’s rough choice. One of the other might have saved her, but beaten up by the claims of both, she went to bed. The whitefolks had tired her out at last.” (180)
Who is this quote about? How was she “beaten up”? Did she react the way you think she should have to Sethe’s action? How would you have reacted?
Why did Sethe decide she had to run away from Sweet Home? Use a quote from the book to in your explanation.
200-204
Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking to? How does this narrator feel about Beloved’s return?
205-209
Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking about? How does this narrator feel about Beloved’s return?
210-213
Who is the narrator in this chapter? Who is she talking about?
Can you describe the style of this chapter? Why do you think Morrison made it so difficult to understand?
What images does the narrator describe? What do you think she is referring to?
214-217
Who are the narrators in this chapter? What do they keep repeating?
What is the mood in this chapter? Based on the last three chapters, how would you predict life is changing at 124?
218-229
What new information do we learn about the attempted escape from Sweet Home in this chapter?
“Paul D hears the men talking and for the first time learns his worth. He has always known, or believed he did, his value -- as a hand, a laborer who could make a profit on a farm -- but now he discovers his worth, which is to say he learns his price.” (226)
Why is this such an important moment for Paul D? How do you think it affects him to hear “his worth”?
230-235
How does Stamp Paid try to explain Sethe’s actions to Paul D? Do you agree or disagree with him? Explain.
Book Three
239-262
Describe life inside 124 from Denver’s perspective after Sethe figures out who Beloved is.
Write a journal entry as Mrs. Lady Jones on the first day Denver comes to see you. How do you feel about her visit? How will you help her?
Write a conversation between Janey Wagon and Ella about Denver’s situation in 124, and what the townspeople should do about it.
Compare the climactic scene in this chapter to the first climax in the story. How is it similar? How is it different?
263-273
Explain what you think Denver means when Paul D asks Denver, “You think she sure ‘nough your sister?” and she replies, “At times. At times I think she was -- more.”
Who is Paul D talking about and what do you think he means when he says, “There are too many things to feel about this woman” (272)? Do you agree with his assessment of her, or do you think she is “simpler”?
274-275
What is the tone of this final chapter?
What is the significance of the line: “This is not a story to pass on.”? Has Beloved left any trace? Why write a story that should not be passed on?
Word Log
Students will be responsible for tracking a particular word -- hands, faces, fluid, animals, food -- through the book, looking for how Morrison uses the same image repeatedly for different effects, and how their understanding of her message was reinforced by the development of these images. Students can periodically “web” their word, looking for ways it is used throughout the text.
____
The introduction and initial web should take one class period towards the beginning of the book. Updates and discussion of the webs can occur more quickly once or twice during further reading.
Plot Chart
Make a large “plot chart” diagram on a bulletin board, and fill in information as it is revealed. It works best as a double plot chart, with two climaxes, two conflicts, etc. -- one for the events at Sweet Home, climaxing with the death of Beloved, and one beginning with Paul D’s arrival at 124 eighteen years later, climaxing with Beloved’s disappearance. This division of the plot helps students identify more clearly with the time-telling. Discussion of this plot chart as it develops should move towards why Morrison tells two stories at once, in the mixed-up order she does. I lead students towards comparing the many flashbacks to how they feel about an important memory that keeps cropping up in their minds, long after the events have passed.
____
As with the word log, setting up the plot chart takes one class period, and briefer updates should occur several times during the reading of the novel.
