Summary: Chapter 4
Denver hurts Paul D by asking him how long he plans to
“hang around.” Sethe is mortified by Denver’s behavior but refuses
to allow Paul D to criticize her daughter. Paul D interprets this
as a sign of intense motherly love and thinks it is dangerous for
an ex-slave to love anything too much. Paul D has learned to love
the individuals in his life only partially, so that he has enough
love left over for the next person when the first is taken away.
Paul D promises Sethe that she can safely reenter her
past because he will be there to catch her if she falls. He invites
Denver and Sethe to a carnival in town that is having a special
day for blacks. At the carnival, Denver surprises herself by having
a good time. The people they see there greet her casually, rather
than showing her the contempt she expects. Because he is such an
extrovert and so shamelessly thrilled by the carnival, Paul D is
a hit with the other carnival-goers. He thus helps reintegrate Sethe
and Denver into the community, and he makes a few acquaintances.
He also inquires about getting a job. Paul D is amused by the spectacle
of the supposed “Wild African Savage,” because he says he knew the
man back in Roanoke. On the way to and from the carnival, the smell
of rotting roses is overpowering. Also, both on the way there and
on the way back, Sethe notices that the three shadows of Paul D,
Denver, and herself overlap so as to appear to be holding hands.
She interprets this as a promising sign that signals future happiness.
Summary: Chapter 5
A fully dressed woman walks out of a stream and falls
asleep beneath a mulberry tree. The woman moves to a tree stump
near the steps of 124, where Paul D, Sethe,
and Denver find her as they return from the carnival. Sethe suddenly
feels a strange, irrepressible need to urinate and is reminded of
her water breaking before Denver’s birth. Denver and Paul D take
the woman inside, where she drinks cup after cup of water. Her name,
it turns out, is Beloved. Her skin is as smooth as a baby’s, and
she has no recollection of the past. Denver notes that Here Boy,
the dog that was disfigured during one of the baby ghost’s rages,
has disappeared.
Beloved sleeps for four days, waking only to ask for water.
While Beloved sleeps, Denver cares for her with a possessive devotion. Beloved’s
presence makes Paul D uneasy. He remarks that although she acts
and sounds sick, she does not show visible signs of ill health—the other
day, he tells Sethe, he saw her pick up a rocking chair with one hand.
He claims that Denver was also watching, but when he asks Denver
for confirmation, she denies having seen any such thing.
Summary: Chapter 6
Beloved develops a strange attachment to Sethe. Although
she usually hates discussing the past, Sethe enjoys pouring stories
into Beloved’s eager ears. Beloved asks what has happened to what
she calls Sethe’s “diamonds.” Sethe replies that she once owned
some crystal earrings given to her by Mrs. Garner for her wedding.
She then recounts the story of her haphazard, patchwork wedding
dress.
As she watches Sethe arrange Denver’s hair, Beloved
asks about Sethe’s mother. Sethe explains that she rarely saw her.
Sethe remembers that her mother once took her aside and showed her
a circle and a cross that had been burned into her skin. She said
that Sethe could use these marks to identify her body if she died.
When Sethe asked to be marked, too, her mother slapped her. Sethe
tells the girls that she did not understand why her mother had done
this until she had a mark of her own.
