BELOVED

1. "They didn’t look at the woman in the pepper plants with the flower in her hat. And they didn’t look at the seven or so faces that had edged closer in spite of the catcher’s rifle warning. Enough nigger eyes for now. Little nigger-boy eyes open in sawdust; little nigger-girl eyes staring between the wet fingers that held her face so her head wouldn’t fall off; little nigger-baby eyes crinkling up to cry in the arms of the old nigger whose own eyes were nothing but slivers looking down at his feet. But the worst ones were those of the nigger woman who looked like she didn’t have any. Since the whites in them had disappeared and since they were as black as her skin, she looked blind." (p. 150)
   
   An image is a phrase that appeals to one of a reader’s five senses. In the above excerpt from Beloved, Toni Morrison repeats a central image over the course of several sentences to convey to her audience what a group of white men are seeing. She repeatedly uses the phrase "nigger eyes" to display not only what the men who came to capture Sethe are seeing, but also what they are thinking. The use of the word "nigger" shows that they dislike and are disgusted by blacks, and each person involved in the situation is described according to his "eyes."

2. "A shudder ran through Paul D. A bone-cold spasm that made him clutch his knees. He didn’t know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, iron bits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass, rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in the slaughterhouse, Halle in the butter, ghost-white chairs, choke-cherry trees, cameo pins, aspens, Paul A’s face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart.
   "Tell me something, Stamp." Paul D’s eyes were rheumy. "Tell me this one thing. How much is a nigger supposed to take? Tell me. How much?"
   "All he can," said Stamp Paid. "All he can."
   "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" (p. 235)
   
   In the above excerpt from Beloved, Toni Morrison summarizes everything she’s told about Paul D’s past and uses it to signify the beginning of the novel’s climax. Not only does it cinch off part two of the book; it also bluntly expresses how much a black man during the time period had to deal with in his life. The summary expresses Paul D’s true feeling of despair.

3. "Oh, baby," said Mrs. Jones. "Oh, baby."
   Denver looked up at her. She did not know it then, but it was the word "baby," said softly and with such kindness, that inaugurated her life in the world as a woman. (p. 248)
   
   There comes a point in everyone’s life when he discovers that he is grown. Usually, though, one must look back at life to pinpoint the moment at which that happened. Toni Morrison clues us in to what Denver is going through despite the fact that even Denver is oblivious to what is happening. This technique further increases the audience’s sympathy with Denver.