1. Beloved POV and Characterization

2. Point of View What are the various types?

3. First Person Gives readers access to real inner feelings Adds intimacy Makes readers feel present in the story

4. Second Person Rare (has jarring effect / least popular) Author controls the information Doesn’t allow the reader to “escape” into another character

5. Third Person Three types: Third Person Limited Only knows the thoughts/feelings of one character Multiple Third Person Limited Knows the thoughts/feelings of several (but not all) characters Third Person Omniscient Knows thoughts/feelings of all characters

6. What POV is Beloved? Third Person Omniscient PROS: CONS:

7. POV Shifts In the first chapter, the POV shifts 11 times. With a partner, find and label in your novel where the shifts occur on the following pages: 5 8 (2 times) 9 12 (2 times) 14 18 20 (2 times) 21 (2 times) 22

8. What effect does this have on.. Plot (tension, suspense, speculation) Our view of the characters Intimacy with characters Feelings of the reader

9. Themes Universal presence of evil Inability of a person to escape the horrors of the past Mental and physical enslavement of people Cruelty and inhumanity of slavery Power of maternal love Destructive and Supportive aspects of community Traumatic memory and its effects Psychological isolation from not knowing one’s own life story / family background

10. Characterization Characters’ actions and desires within a novel help reveal the work’s meaning (theme) For each character, find three pieces of textual evidence and explain how they portray the character’s desires, fears, or beliefs. Link those examples to the themes we discussed.

11. Denver “It began as a little girl’s houseplay, but as her desires changed, so did the play. Quiet, private and completely secret except for the noisome cologne signal that thrilled the rabbits before it confused them. First a playroom (where the silence was softer), then a refuge (from her brothers’ fright), soon the place became the point. In that bower, closed off from the hurt of the hurt world, 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” (Morrison 35).

12. Denver Denver: feels isolated and alone, seeks comfort in her own world, seeking her own identity, lives within her own imagination, child-like Themes: Mental and physical enslavement, psychological effects of not knowing life story / family background

13. Now, ON YOUR OWN! Choose one character Write a paragraph that explains how your character’s actions/beliefs portrays the meaning of the work. Example: Denver struggles with physical and psychological isolation because she lacks an identity of her own. To escape “the hurt of the hurt world,” Denver hides in her secret, edenic “refuge” away from Sethe. Here, she delves into her childish imagination to avoid the loneliness that wears her out. In her own Garden of Eden, Denver is protected from the painful memories of her mother’s past, and she is free to feed her insatiable “hunger” by forming her own beliefs about the history of her family. Without a sense identity, Denver cannot break free from the chains of her mother’s past.