The Objects Connoting Beloved's Initial Appearance Frances Tilney

When Paul D, Denver and Sethe first come upon Beloved resting against a tree after emerging from the water, the three cannot understand the past or present of the girl in front of them. Rather than interpret her odd actions, each of them looks to a physical aspect of Beloved to act as a key to her soul. Even as Beloved comes home to stay within the first chapter of her appearance, the family takes note of her personality through her vague actions and her own fascination in small objects. Her background and her future is incomprehensible to them; therefore, small forays into her being must be gleaned by observation and slight questioning of her sickly movements. Morrison, by giving the reader inklings of Beloved's true person, makes her all the more intriguing and mysterious through the strange connotations of the girl's associated objects.

When Sethe, Denver and Paul D first saw Beloved, the only things they noticed were the objects surrounding her: "a black dress, two unlaced shoes below it" (51). As Paul D gives her water, Beloved drinks from the tin cup four times and leaves droplets on her chinthe cup and the drops acting as the two most noticeable aspects of her person. Sethe then notices her slender,...