Paul D Sethe

•Breathless with anticipation•Longed for her for many years•Feels awkward after the love-making•Thoughts drift back to the past * Memory of Sixo

•A little apprehensive•Long time since she has had sex•Feels awkward after the love-making•Thoughts drift back to the past * Memory of Halle

Morrison’s writer’s craft:Omniscient point of view: Morrison sees into the minds of the characters.She fluidly shifts from the thoughts of one character into the thoughts of another character.

Sethe remembers the gentle love-making between her and HalleIn contrast with the unsatisfactory love-making between her and Paul DPaul remembers watching the couple (in secret) with jealousy.

Author’s purpose: Why, do you think, does Morrison build these distinct differences and similarities within these two characters?

Marriage between Halle and Sethe•Were not able to get married legally: Halle could not ‘lay claim’ to his enslaved wife.

•Slaves could not have a marriage contract because they have already been contracted to their slave owners.

•Slaves could not have a strong claim to their children.

•Baby Suggs losing all her children was not unusual: called her boys Paul A, Paul F etc: shows that they are interchangeable.

•Last name was Garner: Name of the slave owner.

Author’s purpose: What literary and historical foundations do you think is Morrison building at this point of the novel?

Mother – Daughter relationships•Sethe was a slave child: grew up in a commune.

•Little attachment with her own mother: due to circumstance.

•Helps understand the depth and importance of Sethe and Denver’s relationship: feel deeply connected.

•Denver sees Paul D’s presence as a threat to her relationship with her mother.

Author’s purpose: How does Morrison construct Denver’s personality within these chapters? How do you, as a reader, respond to her character and what do you predict about her at this point of the novel?

The issue of color:

When Sethe wakes up after her first night with Paul D, she sees her house in a different perspective.

*House has become heavier and more masculine.

•She also notices the lack of color for the first time in eighteen years.

•Her failure to previously notice the absence of color symbolizes Sethe's repression of her emotions, such as desire and love.

•She has been so occupied all these years in pushing down the bad memories, especially the red ones of her dead infant, that she has not been able to life her live in the present; she has led a colorless existence.

Author’s purpose: In the beginning of the novel, Baby Suggs believed: Her past had been like her present – intolerable – and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color. How could this concept be connected to what the reader discovers about color in Chapters 2 and 3? What is Morrison attempting or expecting the reader to conclude?

Beautiful Imagery:

Although her eyes were closed, Sethe knew his gaze was on her face, and a paper picture of just how bad she must look raised itself up before her mind’s eye.

Denver’s imagination produced its own hunger and its own food, which she badly needed because loneliness wore her out. Wore her out. Veiled and protected by the live green walls, she felt ripe and clear, and salvation was as easy as a wish.