Beloved Chapter 2

“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Take 15 minutes to articulately respond to the prompt below in 3/4 to a page long paragraph (use at least one analytical verb and one compare and contrast key word in your response, and underline them)

What similarities do you see concerning the treatment of expectations and memory versus reality in both The Great Gatsby and Beloved? How does this play out for Gatsby, Paul D, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Sethe and Baby Suggs? 

In Beloved, Baby Suggs says "a man ain't nothing but a a man. But a son? Well now, that s a somebody"(27). What does baby Suggs mean by this? What differentiates a son from a man according to baby Suggs? What makes baby Suggs adopt this ideology? (Charlie)

After Paul D and Sethe first had sex in chapter 2, "they lay side by side resentful of one another", and later John D was thinking to himself, "Nothing could be as good as the sex with with her Paul D had been imagining off and on for twenty five years." 

What could have caused the resentment between the two? Why was Paul's imagination greater than reality? Is this a common occurance in life?  (Nick)

Sethe says, "They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and as soon as you felt how light and lovely that was, they studied you scars and tribulations, after which they did what he had done" ran her children out and tore up the house." (Morrison 26) Who is Sethe referring to in this quote, Paul D., Halle, both or neither? What prompts these feelings in Sethe and why?  (Kendall)

"...trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted to as he frequently did since way back when he took the midday meal in the fields of Sweet Home" (Morrison 25). Why did Paul D spend time talking to trees when there were so many other men around to talk to? What does this say about his and other characters relationship with nature? (Jenna)

2 Kaelan Lee yesterday, 8:00:55 PM
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When Sixo "plotted down to the minute a thirty-mile trip to see a woman", what motivated him? Why would he travel that far just to see a woman?

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2.1 Tara Flaherty yesterday, 8:26:14 PM
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When Sixo "plotted down to the minute a thirty-mile trip to see a woman", what motivated him? Why would he travel that far just to see a woman?
Toni Morrison seems to indicate that the men are fairly respectable, despite their acts with the cows. They wait for Sethe to pick a man, however, for Sixo, it is not a big problem because of the thirty mile woman. Because of her "Sixo was the only one not paralyzed by yearning for Sethe" (30) making daily life at Sweet Home easier. Additionally, Morrisson's inclusion of their acts with the cows indicates that sex was very driving.

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2.2 Katherine Underwood yesterday, 9:16:13 PM
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When Sixo "plotted down to the minute a thirty-mile trip to see a woman", what motivated him? Why would he travel that far just to see a woman?
I think that Sixo travels that far to see a woman because he is different from the other Sweet Home men. He is the only one "not paralyzed by yearning for Sethe" (Morrison 30). He does not share the other mens' feelings towards women and sex, he seems to be a more reserved and dedicated person. I think he travels so far to see her because he has feelings for her in particular and not just any woman he could find.

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2.3 Max Ryser 16 minutes ago
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When Sixo "plotted down to the minute a thirty-mile trip to see a woman", what motivated him? Why would he travel that far just to see a woman?
Sixo was willing to make the thirty-mile trip because there was no other option. She was probably the only available woman other than sethe in the area and so he was willing to make such a long and arduous hike just to meet her. This displays just how lonely some of the men felt because he was willing to walk for hours to see her and just say hi.

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3 Alex Saacke yesterday, 9:00:24 PM
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Morrison portrays these Sweet Home men dreaming of rape but also taking a romantic "thirty-mile trip to see a woman" (26). How could these men have such contrasting attitudes towards woman at the same time?

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3.1 Alvaro Villalobos yesterday, 10:04:20 PM
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Morrison portrays these Sweet Home men dreaming of rape but also taking a romantic "thirty-mile trip to see a woman" (26). How could these men have such contrasting attitudes towards woman at the same time?
I believe a lot of these differing attitudes comes to create contrast of these men's humanity. That they are seen with their humanity striped of them while dreaming of rape, yet these women give these men humanity. For Sixo this woman becomes a focus of his life holding him from slipping into losing his humanity and simply becoming an item. That chance of seeing and gaining humanity is what stops these men from doing all these horrible things. Thinking and doing are different things and I feel that Morrison pushes this with this contrast of these men's humanity.

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3.2 Sam Whalen yesterday, 11:48:50 PM
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Morrison portrays these Sweet Home men dreaming of rape but also taking a romantic "thirty-mile trip to see a woman" (26). How could these men have such contrasting attitudes towards woman at the same time?
I feel that the "dreaming of rape" quality of these men is more of a label that has been put on these men and a role that they have been forced into more than an actual desire of theirs. The Sweet Home men do not touch Sethe once she arrives and they do not act out in any way that would suggest they are threatening people, however, I think that their lifestyle of deprivation has them thinking of any possible sexual pleasure that they can get. Rape is the most extreme way of saying that these men would get sexual fulfillment, so I think that Morrison uses this phrase to emphasize how desperate the men are to find pleasure in their lives, and that this has caused the thought of rape to cross their minds even though they would never act upon these dreams in reality. Morrison definitely knew this would catch attention and provoke a lot of thought, so it is possible that she just wanted to emphasize how dehumanized these men have been. Also, I feel that the 30 mile journey to see a woman for an hour is a further example of how desperate these men are, and how much desire they have to find pleasures in their tough lives. The innocence of Sixo's actions help to show that these men think about women a lot because they don't have exposure to them, not because they are simply bad people who fantasize about rape.


Homework: Read Chapter 3 and post one question and respond to another in turnitin.com.