Alanna Thornton’s Reviews > Beloved > Status Update

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. He would not pry it loose now in front of this sweet sturdy woman, for if she got a whiff of the contents it would shame him.

"Hey! Listen up. Let me tell you something. A man ain't a goddamn ax. Chopping, hacking, busting every goddamn minute of the day. Things get to him. Things he can't chop down because they're inside."

“How did she know.”

Honestly so spooky
Still completely intriguing and absolutely confusing

"Today is always here," said Sethe. "Tomorrow, never."

It became a way to feed her. Just as Denver discovered and relied on the delightful effect sweet things had on Beloved, Sethe learned the profound satisfaction Beloved got from storytelling. It amazed Sethe (as much as it pleased Beloved) because every mention of her past life hurt. Everything in it was painful or lost.

WOAH!!

“They were not holding hands, but their shadows were.”

"What were you praying for, Ma'am?"
"Not for anything. I don't pray anymore. I just talk."

“Shivering, Denver approached the house, regarding it, as she always did, as a person rather than a structure. A person that wept, sighed, trembled and fell into fits. Her steps and her gaze were the cautious ones of a child approaching a nervous, idle relative (someone dependent but proud).”

Everything is sad, vague and confusing
10 pages later I’ll finally grasp the meaning of something but I’ll already have more that I need to decipher