Unit Two: Identity Stories

Unit Two: Identity Stories

Week Two Notes

Day One: Beloved Chapter 2-4

DIRECTIONS: Answer the following question in 2-4 sentences or bullet points.

1) What were three key events that occurred in the reading over the weekend?

2) What important information did we learn about Sweet Home[JJ1]?

3) What is ironic about the name Sweet Home?

[JJ2]

DIRECTIONS: With a partner, fill out the following character chart.

Beloved Character Chart
Character Name / Personality Traits / Evidence
Paul D
Sethe
Denver
Sixo
Halle
Paul A

Day Two: Beloved Chapters 5-6

DIRECTIONS: Answer the question while reviewing your text. You will have six minutes.

1) Describe the woman coming out of the water. What do you notice about her? What seems significant about her? Write down any details from the text that stand out to you about her. [JJ3]

Jot notes as we debrief the passage:

Characterizing Beloved
Physical Descriptions / Significance
[JJ4] / [JJ5]
[JJ6] / [JJ7]
[JJ8] / [JJ9]

Day Three: Beloved Chapter 7-8

DIRECTIONS: Using your text and annotations from last night’s reading, answer the following questions. We will be discussing the questions together in 10 minutes.

1) Re-read through the bottom of page 81 through the end of chapter 7. What significant information does Sethe learn about Halle? About Paul D? How does this change the way that she sees Halle[JJ10]?

2) How does the idea of memory and rememory come up in this selection? What is significant about memory?[JJ11]

3) Describe Sethe giving birth to Denver (page 97-100). What details stand out to you in the selection? What is significant about the details? [JJ12]

DIRECTIONS: Write a robust paragraph explaining the significance of the river in Denver’s birth in chapter 8. Be sure to draw from apt and specific references from the text. We will show call these paragraphs in 12 minutes.

Day Four: Beloved Chapter 9

DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions in 3-4 sentences using at least one piece of textual evidence.

1) What is the Clearing and what is the important message[JJ13] that Baby Suggs delivers at it?

2) On page 111, the text says that Sethe “…bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with the others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” What does this quote mean and what is significant about it[JJ14]?

3) What is significant about Sethe’sstrangling[JJ15]?

[JJ1]Sweet Home was the plantation home where Sethe, Baby Suggs, Paul D and the other slaves lived.

[JJ2]The name “Sweet Home” is ironic because it is the place where the slaves were tortured and oppressed by the slaveowners.

[JJ3]She’s wet and wearing a strange dress; breathing heavily as if she has asthma; smiling creepily. She’s also very weak and gets so tired from walking that she has to stop to rest periodically. Her skin is also “lineless,” not wrinkled at all. Not even her hands…

Rough voice, thirsty

[JJ4]Smooth skin

[JJ5]This is significant because it appears as if Beloved is almost like a baby—her skin hasn’t been weathered by living in the world for long periods of time.

[JJ6]Craggy voice

[JJ7]Seems to demonstrate that her voice hasn’t been used much…or perhaps she’s sick…

[JJ8]Sleepy and exhausted

[JJ9]Maybe she’s been traveling a long way and tired or perhaps she’s also kind of just like a baby…

[JJ10]Apparently Halle saw Sethe being raped by the farm boys, but couldn’t leave the loft of the barn. He also couldn’t interact with Sethe after that happened because it broke something inside of him. Sethe is frustrated by the fact that Halle didn’t help her out and even more sad now that she doesn’t know if the reason that he hasn’t come back to her is because he’s dead or just because he couldn’t handle seeing her after knowing what happened to her.

[JJ11]Paul D locks away his memories in a tobacco tin box “where his red heart used to be.” The rememory of how Halle responded to Sethe’s rape he has to tuck away otherwise he’ll break.

[JJ12]Sethe climbs into the boat in the river that’s separating slave and free land. She has the baby in the boat and the baby’s umbilical cord is wrapped around its neck

[JJ13]The Clearing is a space in the woods where the townspeople go to worship and be free. Baby Suggs’ message to the people is to love themselves because the world isn’t going to love them.

[JJ14]There’s a difference between being a freed slave and accepting and loving your freed self.

[JJ15]Beloved begins by giving Sethe a massage and then slowly begins strangling her. It’s the first act of aggression that Beloved commits against Sethe. We’re starting to see Beloved’s true nature come out