Beloved 3

"Down in the grass, like the snake she believed she was, Sethe opened her mouth, and instead of fangs and a split tongue, out shot the truth."

In this quote the author uses both imagery and a form of metaphor/simile description. By using the metaphor/simile that Sethe is like a snake in the grass opening her mouth, you are easily able to picture this scene in your mind. Although we don't know exactly at this moment why being pregnant with this particular baby makes Sethe feel "snake-like," it kind of forshadows that we're going to find out more about how she got into that situation and why she sees it in a negative way.

Beloved 2

"What she called the nastiness of life was teh shock she recieved upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children."

I feel that this metaphor helps to show you the meaning of the book because you can tell that the characters play life like its a game that they are always losing. Because they are african americans living during slavery and not being able to catch a break they have almost desensitized their views of life so much that they feel their own lives simply represent pieces in a game of checkers.

Beloved

Quote: "Was it hard? I hope she didn't die hard." Sethe shook her head. "Soft as cream. Being alive was the hard part. Sorry you missed her though."

I felt that this was a very meaningful passage for numerous reasons. One being that you can immediately get the tone of the book to be somewhat depressing because of the way they address death. You get the feeling that the characters have experienced so much hardship in their lives that death is almost a "relief" or the "easy way out" over living through all the pain. Although I am only in the beginning of the book, this tone leads me to believe that the book is going to have a very deep meaning associated it dealing with life's cruelties.