CHAPTER 19

Notes

Like Book I, Book II opens with a description of the house at 124 Bluestone. This time the house is loud and filled with anger. As Stamp Paid approaches the house, he hears all kinds of voices that seem to be coming from inside. He believes that the sounds are really the rage of all the blacks who have been tortured by white oppression. Once again, there is a ghostly, supernatural image here.

Stamp PaidÂ’s reaction to knocking at the door of 124 Bluestone is humorous, but touching. He feels ashamed that he has shown the article about Sethe to Paul D, especially since it caused him to depart from 124 Bluestone. In his guilt, Stamp Paid wants to see Sethe and explain things to her, but he feels he can no longer just walk inside her house as a welcome guest. Instead, he believes he must knock and be invited in. Several times he comes to the house, and each time he leaves without knocking. He just cannot make himself bang on the door, as if he were some stranger.

When Stamp Paid is finally brave enough to knock, he gets no answer. As a result, he looks through the window and is shocked and hurt to see two people, who have ignored his knock. He is even more surprised to realize that one of the people is a stranger, for he knows that no guest ever comes to visit at 124 Bluestone. He is so shocked at what he sees that he goes to tell Ella the news. She has no idea who is staying at Bluestone with Sethe. She does, however, inform Stamp Paid that Paul D is staying at the church. The news makes Stamp Paid feel even worse, for he believes no black man should ever be denied a bed in Cincinnati. He feels that all blacks have all been made to suffer too much and too long at the hands of white men. As a result, they should always be willing to reach out and help each other.

Much of the chapter is devoted to Sethe reflecting on her past. She thinks of both happy times and sad times. She realizes that she seems to suffer in cycles of twenty years, followed by brief bursts of joy. Her time with Paul D was one of those pleasant times. Now that he has gone, she feels her life will by fill with misery again for many years.

Sethe stops her reveries to take Beloved and Denver ice-skating. When they return home and huddle in blankets to get warm, Beloved begins to hum a song. Sethe is shocked to hear it, for it is a song that she made up to sing to her children. No one other than her children would know the melody. Sethe has her proof at last. Beloved is her dead baby daughter come back from the grave. Realizing this, Sethe feels greatly relieved. She believes she can now put part of her past behind her. The return of Beloved also gives her hope that her two sons may also return some day.

There is an irony in SetheÂ’s sense of relief. She has lived her life since the murder in a state of disorder, as if she has been out of connection with the living world. With the return of her daughter, she feels connected again; unfortunately, Beloved is not really connected to the living world. Knowing that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter, Sethe imagines trying to talk to Beloved and to justify what she did to her, just like she tried to justify her actions to Paul D. She explains the misery of not being able to be a complete mother to her children since she was a slave. She bemoans the fact that they were considered to be property belonging to white man, who judged them little better than animals. She describes her sadness at having to send her children off in a wagon from Sweet Home, away from her; but she also explains her delight that they were escaping from slavery. Obviously, Sethe still feels terribly guilty, but by acknowledging the things that have bothered her all these years, she can begin to overcome the trauma and self-condemnation she has endured for all these years. Then when she realizes that Beloved is not angry with her, she feels even greater relief. It is one less thing to worry over and feel guilty about.

Again in this chapter, as in some of the early chapters of the novel, there is an emphasis on color. Sethe remembers that she stopped seeing colors after she saw the red blood of her baby and the pink chips of her granite gravestone. She remembers that she noticed color again after Paul D came to stay with he. For Sethe, the recognition of color symbolized the opening of herself to experience life.

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