Beloved

The year is 1873. Sethe lives at 124 Bluestone Road—referred to as simply “124”—with her lone surviving daughter, Denver. The house is haunted by a ghost, the spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter. The daughter is known only as “Beloved” as indicated on her tombstone. Sethe did not have enough money for an engraving on the tombstone, and in return for those seven letters she traded sex with the engraver.

When the novel begins, Sethe’s two teenage boys, Howard and Buglar, have already left the house, fleeing the ghost that lives within it. Sethe’s mother-in-law, Grandma Baby Suggs, passed away almost 10 years earlier, and Sethe believes her husband Halle abandoned her long ago. The ghost makes itself known in frightening ways, at one point slamming the family dog Here Boy into the wall, breaking two of his legs and dislocating his eye. Sethe confidently handles the situation, knocking Here Boy unconscious with a hammer so she can set the broken bones and re-position his eyeball. Here Boy recovers physically but never enters the house again.

One day, Sethe encounters Paul D, a former enslaved man from Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation where she was also once enslaved. Paul D remembers Sethe was the only woman on the farm and that the five enslaved men—Paul D, Halle, Sixo, Paul A, and Paul F—coveted her. Ultimately, she decided to marry Halle. Sethe invites Paul D into her house where he senses the presence of the ghost. He also meets Denver, who is bewildered by Paul D’s appearance, as 124 rarely gets visitors due to the family’s unfortunate history and subsequent ostracizing from the community.

As Sethe makes bread, she and Paul D reflect upon their time at Sweet Home. Sweet Home was once run by a man named Mr. Garner, who took pride in having five enslaved men on his plantation despite other white slaveowners cautioning him about the dangers of Black men. When Mr. Garner died, the widowed Mrs. Garner called upon her brother-in-law, the schoolteacher, to oversee Sweet Home.

Sethe reveals to Paul D a tragic event that happened to her while at Sweet Home. After giving birth to Denver’s sister, she was raped by the schoolteacher’s nephews, who then further violated her by stealing her breastmilk. When she told Mrs. Garner about this, he forced the other slaves at Sweet Home to whip her, forming a “tree” (19) of scars on her back. Paul D caresses Sethe’s breasts and kisses her scars. The recollection of this traumatic memory incites the ghost in the house to shake the house violently. Paul D yells and tosses furniture to scare the ghost away. He seems to succeed, as the noise eventually subsides and the house is noticeably emptier. 

After the haint leaves the house, Sethe and Paul D go upstairs to have sex. While both initially long for each other, the sex is over quickly. Paul D remembers how much he used to lust after Sethe, who was the only young woman on the plantation and, therefore, the only viable partner for the five Sweet Home men. Deprived of other contact with women on the farm, the men resorted to raping cows for their sexual release. They never harmed Sethe but waited for her to select a mate from among them. Sethe eventually chose Halle as her husband because he was a dedicated son to his mother, Grandma Baby Suggs, and labored twice as hard to earn her freedom. Though Paul D has dreamed of having sex with Sethe for a long time, he finds that she is less attractive to him now that they have consummated their relationship. 

The next day, Denver spends time in her usual refuge, a ring of boxwood bushes near 124. She is reminded of the story of her birth, recounted to her by her mother.

As the story goes, when Sethe was about to give birth to Denver, she was on the run from Sweet Home, trying to reunite with her three children across the Ohio River while being pursued by the schoolteacher. This was shortly after the sexual assault by the nephews and the subsequent lashing. Weakened by her injuries, her pregnancy, and the cold, Sethe was about to resign herself to death when a young, malnourished, white servant woman named Amy found her. Amy told her she was looking for food and was on her way to Boston, fleeing her cruel employer. Amy’s chatter soothed Sethe. The stranger knew of an abandoned house nearby where they could take refuge from the snow. Sethe crawled to the house with Amy beside her and permitted the white woman to take care of her as she prepared to give birth. As Amy massages Sethe’s frozen feet and legs, she says, “It’s gonna hurt, now. Anything dead coming back to life hurts” (42).

The morning after Paul D scares away the ghost, he sets out to fix the things he broke in Sethe’s house. He sings songs from his time at the prison farm in Alfred, Georgia, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill Brandywine, the man who bought him from the schoolteacher. After that traumatic time, he closed himself off from the world, but the reappearance of Sethe, a figure from his past, has forced him to remember again. He asks Sethe if “it’s all right to scramble here” (50) for work, implying a desire to remain. She permits him to stay. Paul D expresses concerns about Denver’s feelings about his presence, a worry that Sethe brushes off, saying, “Nothing bad can happen to her” (50). She cites her last encounter with the schoolteacher as an example. Sethe explains that the schoolteacher eventually caught her. She does not offer details about the murder of her other daughter, sharing instead that after her encounter with the schoolteacher, she went to jail with the newborn Denver in her arms. 

One morning, Denver asks Paul D bluntly how much longer he plans to stay with them at the house. The rudeness of her question stuns Paul D. Sethe chastises Denver, who is unfazed. Paul D wonders if Sethe is anticipating his eventual departure, too. To bring the family together, Paul D insists that the three of them go to “Colored Thursday” (58) at the carnival, a day when Black people are permitted to attend the event alongside white people. Sethe reluctantly agrees. While at the festival, the scent of “doomed roses” (57) fills the air. Paul D’s happy spirit disarms everyone around them, which convinces Sethe and Denver to have fun, too. By the end of the festival, Denver does not seem to mind Paul D’s presence in her life as much.