Beloved tells the haunting story of Sethe, an escaped slave living in Ohio after the Civil War.
When a mysterious young woman named Beloved shows up at Sethe’s home, memories of Sethe’s horrific past as a slave come flooding back.
Sethe is forced to confront the painful choice she once made to kill her own child to prevent her from being returned to slavery.
As the heartbreaking secrets of Sethe’s past unfold, we come to understand the lasting scars of slavery on Sethe, her family, and the African American community.
Beloved Quotes With Page Numbers
“It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too. Fire and brimstone all right, but hidden in lacy groves.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 7
“Was it hard? I hope she didn’t die hard.’
Sethe shook her head. ‘Soft as cream. Being alive was the hard part.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D and Sethe, Part One, Page 8
“You looking good.”
“Devil’s confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.”~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part One, Page 8
“They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely it was, they studied your scars and tribulations…”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 27
“No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 33
“Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it’s not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place–the picture of it–stays, and not just in my remory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don’t think if, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Denver, Part One, Page 43
“Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left over for the next one.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 54
“Today is always here,’ said Sethe. ‘Tomorrow, never.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Sethe, Part One, Page 72
“Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 80
“Let me tell you something. A man ain’t a…ax. Chopping, hacking, busting every … minute of the day. Things get to him. Things he can’t chop down because they’re inside.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part One, Page 81
“Everything depends on knowing how much,” she said, and “Good is knowing when to stop.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Baby Suggs, Part One, Page 102
“In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don’t love your eyes; they’d just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face ’cause they don’t love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain’t in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear. What you put into it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don’t love your mouth. You got to love it. This is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I’m telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. and all your inside parts that they’d just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver–love it, love it and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Sethe, Part One, Pages 103-04
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part One, Page 112
“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Sethe, Part One, Page 194
“He licked his lips. ‘Well, if you want my opinion-‘
‘I don’t, ‘ She said. ‘I have my own.”~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Stamp Paid, Part Two, Page 211
“Definitions belonged to the definers, not the defined.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part Two, Page 225
“Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way, he thought, they were right. The more coloredpeople spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread. In, through and after life, it spread, until it invaded the whites who had made it. Touched them every one. Changed and altered them. Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part Two, Page 234
“if they put an iron circle around your neck I will bite it away”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part Two, Page 254
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part Three, Page 321
“Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part Three, Page 321
“You your best thing, Sethe. You are.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part Three, Page 322
“He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. ‘You your best thing, Sethe. You are.’ His holding fingers are holding hers.
‘Me? Me?”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part One, Page 322
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part One, Page 32
“He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. ‘You your best thing, Sethe. You are.’ His holding fingers are holding hers.
‘Me? Me?”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part One, Page 322
“There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind–wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, The Narrator, Part Three, Page 322
“He wants to put his story next to hers.”
~Toni Morrison, Beloved, Paul D, Part Three, Page 322