1. Reading Socratic Guidelines
2. taking notes on the following questions using evidence from the book
- Memory: What role does memory play in the book? What does Sethe teach her children about memory? Why? How do different characters deal with the past and why?
- Love?: Talk about the choice Sethe made regarding her children when schoolteacher arrives to take them all back to Sweet Home. Can her actions be justified—are her actions rational or irrational? Would you argue that a mother’s love is strong?
- Title: Why do you think the book is titled Beloved rather than “Sethe” or “The Ghost” or some such? What features of the book does the title emphasize?
- Self-alienation: Consider the extent to which slavery dehumanizes individuals by stripping them of their identity, destroying their ability to conceive of the self. Consider, especially, Paul and how he can't determine whether screams he hears are his or someone else's. How do the other characters reflect self-alienation? Why do humans alienate themselves? Where else do we see this?
- Silence: How does the idea of silence appear throughout the book? Who has been silenced, how and why? Who breaks that silence and how?4. Extra Credit -
- Write 3 different socratic questions. Prepare a paragraph length bulleted list of answers that include textual evidence.
- Bring these to the conversation and offer your opinion
- write answers to the questions for each chapter
