Alanna Thornton’s Reviews > Beloved > Status Update

"Lay em down, Sethe.
Sword and shield. Down. Down. Both of em down. Down by the riverside. Sword and shield. Don't study war no more.
Lay all that mess down. Sword and shield."
And under the pressing fingers and the quiet instructive voice, she would.
Her heavy knives of defense against misery, regret, gall and hurt, she placed one by one on a bank where clear water rushed on below.

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.”

To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The "better life" she believed she and Denver were living was simply not that other one.

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