Jessica+Beloved+a+novel

 [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Beloved.jpg width="197" height="285" align="left"]]Summery
It starts out as a story about a former slave woman name Sethe living with her mother-inlaw, Baby Suggs and her daughter, Denver in a house that is said to be haunted by her baby girls spirit. As the story progresses, characters leave, or pass away, and there are even some new ones that come to live the house. First there is Paul D. He is a man that used to live on the Sweet Home Plantation with her and many other of their past friends. When he first moves in he he feels a deep affection for Sethe and is torrmented by the baby's spirit in the house. He takes to getting rid of it, and that is exactly what he does. He takes a table, swings it about the house, breaking items and trashing the room, and when he is finished, the baby's spirit had left the house. After that event was all cleaned up and dealt with the situation at 124 was starting to feel a little more normal. Then, out of no where comes this young girl, Beloved, with skin as soft as a baby with no age or working wrinkles to be found. She tells them small bits and pieces about her life, but she is more fasinated with Sethe and her past. She also becomes good friends with Denver, and helps her to see that there really is a bigger world outside of the walls of 124, and you dont have to be afraid of it. And through all of this her and Paul D seem to have this inner connection that no one can see but him. He see's that she has this glow about her and it bothers him how she seems no not even notice it herself. In this part of the story is where Paul D figures out how the baby actually died. He confronts Sethe about it and when she tells him the whole story and her reasons behind it, he doesnt have the same feelings for her and cannot understand how she can justify those doings and leaves. Even though he leaves without saying, Sethe knows that he will not be returning. After Paul D's departure from 124, Denver feels it is her job now to protect Beloved from Sethe. She knows that in the past her brothers left because they were afraid what ever motivated her to kill her own child in the past may resurface, and she would go after them. Soon there are problems between Sethe and Beloved and they end up almost swithching personalities. Sethe gets fired and in turn the food rations in the house run shorter so Sethe gives her portions to Beloved and in turn Sethe starts to waste away and Beloved gains weight. After see how her mother starts to act like a child and Beloved constantly yelling at her as if she is her child, Denver starts to get that idea the Beloved is going to kill her mother. While all of this is going on an old friend of Sethes comes into town and finds Paul D living in the basement of the curch. Coming to the house Paul D walks in and sees something that he never thought he would.   **More on the book:** Chapter Summeries and character descriptions: [] Thoughts on "Who really was Beloved": http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/ReportEssay/literature/Novel%5CAfter_reading_the_novel_Beloved_by_Toni_Morrison__many_readers_may_find-414.htm

Chapter Summeries and Theme Description: http://www.homework-online.com/beloved/index.asp

Character Descriptions: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/beloved/characters.html

 My thoughts
 I thought the book was very well written. It had alot tied into it and you really had to be able to understand all of the flash backs and small stories hidden within the main story. Over all I thought it was a good book to read if you looking for something that is a little more of a chanlenge and takes a little more brain power to understand. If your looking for a book that is easy to read just for fun, this is not the book. You really have to want to read and understand when starting this book. I personaly do like how they incorperated all of the flash backs and small stories because it kept the story interesting. You never really read the same thing twice and in order to understand small parts and key points you had to get to the inner of the book. It started out telling you something that you would not understand until half way through the book because you didnt know any of the background on that spacific event or thought. That gives you that feeling of "Oh! Now I get it" and that is one of the best feelings you can get from a book in my oppion. === Litterary Elements    ===  <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> **Point of View:** The anonymous narrator speaks in the third person and doesn't show any judgment on the actions. When the characters themselves serve as narrators, they use first person and express their personal opinions about things and other people in the story **Genre:** Fiction
 * Setting:** Cincinnati, Ohio; flashbacks to Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky and prison in Alfred, Georgia in 1873, with frequent flashbacks      to the early 1850 s

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> About the Author
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif">   <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="COLOR: #0074ff; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> <span style="COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', cursive"><span style="COLOR: #0d6ff8; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive"> The Author of Beloved: a novel is Toni Morrison. She was born Chloe Anthony Wofford, on February 18, 1931 in Lorain Ohio, as the second of four children in a working-class family. Even at an early age, she showed great intersest in literature. Her favorite authors early on were the Russian writers Tolstoy and Dostoyevski, French author Gustave Flaubert and English novelist Jane Austen. She attented an integrated school in her younger ages. in her first grade, she was the only black student in her class and the only one who could read. Morrison made friends with many of her white class mates and didnt have problems with descrimination until she started to date. Even with the descrimination at school she was an excellent student and graduated with honors from Lorain High School in 1949. She then attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and received a master's degree in 1955. While attending Howard she met and fell in love with Harold Morrison, a young Jamaican architect. They married in 1958 and had their first son, Harold Ford in 1961. After her first son was born she still continuted teaching and taking care of her family. She later joined a small writers group as an escape from her unhappy marriage. Each week someone was required to being in a story or a peom and having nothing she quickly jotted down a memory of a little black girl she grew up with her wanted blue eyes like Shirley Temple. The group adored the stroy and she tucked it away not thinking much more of it. Her marriage slowly derteriorated after that and while pregnant with her second son she left her husband and took her son on a trip to Europe. When they returned she divored her husband and moved back home with her parents in Lorain. She has gone on to write seven novels in her time, all about growing up black and living in America. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Beloved" in 1988, and was also the first black female to win the Nobel Prize for literature. She is currently a professor at Princeton University and is the founder and sponsor of the //Princeton Atelier// students arts workshop.

More on the Author Toni Morrison: http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html

More Books By Toni Morrison: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/toni_morrison.html