Prompt: Reading Response to Section II of Beloved

Section I of Beloved is told entirely through third-person narration, even though the perspective shifts. In Section II, first-person narration occurs; how does the first-person narration change or add to your understanding of the character narrating (Sethe, Denver, Beloved)? You might either look closely at one character, drawing in textual evidence, or you might compare the style of narration of the three.

A couple of definitions that might help:

- Character: “…Authors have two major methods of presenting characters: showing and telling. Showing allows the author to present a character talking and acting, and lets the reader infer what kind of person the character is. In telling, the author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the reader. Characters can be convincing whether they are presented by showing or by telling, as long as their actions are motivated. Motivated action by the characters occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the characters behave, what they say, and the decisions they make. Plausible action is action by a character in a story that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented.”

- Stream of consciousness: “The stream-of-consciousness technique takes a reader inside a character's mind to reveal perceptions, thoughts, and feelings on a conscious or unconscious level. This technique suggests the flow of thought as well as its content; hence, complete sentences may give way to fragments as the character's mind makes rapid associations free of conventional logic or transitions.”

                                                            (definitions from Bedford St. Martins’ ‘Lit Gloss’)

Your post is due by 11:59 pm on Monday, April 11. Reach through several of your peers’ posts and be prepared to comment briefly on them at the beginning of class.