Beloved By Toni Morrison explanation of chapters 1-7

1. GROUP NO. 01.

2. Group No. 01.
Group Members:-
Umm-e-Rooman Yaqoob – Roll No. 03.
H. Rabia Aashiq – Roll No. 28.
Laraib Nadeem – Roll No. 30.
Aleena Farooq – Roll No. 07.
Mehak Rasool – Roll No. 43.
Sadaf Jamal – Roll No. 36.
Samia Shabbir – Roll No. 24.
Zulaikha Hameed – Roll No. 39.

3. Topic:
Summary of
Chapter 1 – 7 of
‘Beloved’ by Toni
Morrison.

4. Umm-e-Rooman
Yaqoob.
Roll No. 03.

5. Introduction
Beloved is a 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison.
Set after the American Civil War (1861–1865), it is inspired by
the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who
escaped slavery in Kentucky late January 1856 by fleeing to
Ohio, a free state.
In the novel, the protagonist Sethe is also a slave who
escapes slavery, running to Cincinnati, Ohio.

6. After twenty-eight days of freedom, a posse arrives to retrieve
her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which
gave slave owners the right to pursue slaves across state
borders.
Sethe kills her two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be
recaptured and taken back to Sweet Home, the Kentucky
plantation from which Sethe recently fled.
A woman presumed to be her daughter, called Beloved, returns
years later to haunt Sethe's home at 124 Bluestone Road,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
The story opens with an introduction to the ghost: "124 was
spiteful. Full of a baby's venom.

7. Summary of Chapter No. 01 – 07.
The house belongs to Sethe, an ex-slave who had run away from
the place of her enslavement, "Sweet Home," 18 years ago.
The house is spiteful because it is haunted by the spirit of
Sethe's one-year-old baby, who died 18 years ago (buried under
a tombstone reading the single word "BELOVED").
Besides Sethe and the ghost, there is only Sethe's youngest
daughter, Denver, living in 124.
We learn, however, that there were two sons, Howard and
Buglar, both of whom fled at from the house when they were
thirteen.

8. Sethe's mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, also lived with them until
eight years ago, when she died.
Sethe's husband, Halle, is presumably dead, having not been
seen since Sethe left Sweet Home.
The main action of the first chapter revolves around the visit
of Paul D Garner, the "last of the Sweet Home men.“
From him, we learn a bit of Sethe's past. The Garners,
owners of Sweet Home, treated their Negroes decently, but
at Mr. Garner's death, an odious man referred to as
"schoolteacher" arrived.

9. At the time of Sethe's flight from Sweet Home, she had
already sent the two boys and a just-born, unnamed baby
to Baby Suggs in Cincinnati.
However, before she could flee, two white men cornered
her and took her milk (which she was saving for Beloved).
In the present time, Sethe possesses a "chokecherry
tree" of scars upon her back, perhaps from that time.

10. H. Rabia Aashiq.
Roll No. 28.

11. Denver finds herself left out by the "twosome" of Sethe
and Paul D, who share the same past.
"I can't live here," she pronounces, crying. "I don't know
where to go or what to do, but I can't live here. Nobody
speaks to us. Nobody comes by. Boys don't like me. Girls
don't either.“
Denver's only solace, it seems, is the company of the
ghost. At the end of the chapter, however, the ghost is
scared off by Paul D.

12. Chapter 2 begins with Paul D and Sethe rushing upstairs to
have sex, but "it was over before they could get their
clothes off.“
Instead, the past rushes over them and both are caught in
flashbacks of Sweet Home.
Sethe recalls how Baby Suggs lost all her children to
slavery-how Halle sold himself for her freedom "when it
didn't mean a thing.“
Chapter 3 begins the series of flashbacks regarding
Denver's birth.

13. Denver tells the tale of how a "whitegirl" named Amy
discovered Sethe, six-months pregnant and running from
Sweet Home.
An unlikely savior, Amy managed to coax a fallen Sethe back
onto her hands and feet and to a nearby lean-to.
Sethe continues thinking about "schoolteacher," and we learn
that he had two nephews with "pretty manners" whom he also
brought with him to Sweet Home.
She mentions how he went around asking the slaves questions
and writing down what they said.

14. Laraib Nadeem.
Roll No. 30.

15. Sharing their pasts, Sethe and Paul D start to plan out a future
together with each other.
Paul D promises to be there for Sethe, and she reluctantly
agrees to let him take hold of her life.
Under Paul D's urging, Sethe and Denver go with him to a
carnival on Colored Thursday, where excitement and
cheerfulness abounds.
Many Negroes smile at the two women for the first time, and
Denver is delighted. Her feelings about Paul D begin to change,
and their shadows hold hands.

16. Chapter 5 opens with the disturbing image of a woman, 19 or
20 years old, coming out of the marsh, fully dressed.
She is tired and thirsty, but her shoes are new and her skin is
flawless except for three scratches on her forehead.
It takes her more than two days to drag herself to 124, where
she arrives just as Sethe, Denver, and Paul D come back from
the carnival.
With a harsh voice, she pronounces that her name is
"Beloved."

17. It takes weeks for Beloved to build up strength, and in the
mean time Denver cares for her.
However, despite Denver's constant attendance, Beloved
begins to show a devotion towards Sethe.
She begins inquiring about Sethe's past, asking questions that
trigger old memories.
"Where your diamonds?" Beloved asks, and Sethe reveals that
at one point in her life she had been given crystal earrings by
Mrs. Garner as a wedding gift.
At another point, Beloved asks about Sethe's mother.

18. Sethe remembers being told by her nurse that she was the only
baby whom her mother had kept from the slave ship.
Despite Sethe's and Denver's affections for the girl, Paul D begins
to grow suspicious of Beloved.
He begins to question her about her past, but Beloved evades his
questions.
He notes that before her arrival Sethe, Denver, and him were just
beginning to build a future.
In an argument over Beloved, Paul D tells Sethe that Halle never
followed her to freedom because he had seen schoolteacher's
two nephews drink up her milk and was broken by the sight.

19. Thank You. 