... his wife's milk being stolen. Beloved's memories of the "dark place- from which she came can be taken as those of a deceased infant girl, but they also greatly resemble an African woman's memories of the crossing of the Atlantic on the way to America. Beloved recalls dark, hot, cramped quarters, a pile of dead bodies, and water. Additionally, the "bridge- she talks ... about could be the bridge of a ship. These uncanny images resurface in Beloved's monologue in Chapter 22 Song and dance played an important part in the lives of the slaves. They would sing songs as they were made to work ...

• Word Count: 1034
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... were forced into America as property. They were stripped from a livable past and shackled into a foreign, unlivable future. The story of the American slave is thus the story of the African's search for a home in a hateful land. In Toni Morrison's Beloved, each generation hopes to find a better home despite a malignant world: Sethe's mother traveled from the slave ship to the plantation ... Suggs too realizes that imagining love alone cannot create it. "Baby Suggs, holy, believed she had lied. There was no grace – imaginary or real – and no sunlit dance in the Clearing could chang...

• Word Count: 2092
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends. No coloredpeople." When Sethe first came to 124, her mother-in-law's home, it was "was a softened place in which the African American community of Cincinnati met and exchanged information and food." Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs was the heart of this community. Not only was she a warm woman who opened ... and did not touch Sethe's, who did not touch theirs and forbade Denver to do so. So Baby Suggs, holy, having devoted her free life to harmony, was buried amid a dance of pride, fear, condemnation and spite. Just about everybody in town ...

• Word Count: 3712
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School

... no visitors of any sort and certainly no friends. No coloredpeople." When Sethe first came to 124, her mother-in-law's home, it was "was a softened place in which the African American community of Cincinnati met and exchanged information and food." Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs was the heart of this community. Not only was she a warm woman who opened ... and did not touch Sethe's, who did not touch theirs and forbade Denver to do so. So Baby Suggs, holy, having devoted her free life to harmony, was buried amid a dance of pride, fear, condemnation and spite. Just about everybody in town ...

• Word Count: 3715
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School