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Sethe's and Halle's Birth
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The Garners purchase Halle and Baby Suggs
"the one who took Baby Suggs’ place after Halle bought her with five years of Sundays. Maybe that was why she chose him." Chapter 1, part 1 -
Sethe arrives at Sweet Home
"Sethe was thirteen when she came to Sweet Home and already iron-eyed. She was a timely present for Mrs. Garner who had lost Baby Suggs to her husband’s high principles." Chapter 1, part 1 -
Baby Suggs' freedom is bought by Halle
“Usually he worked Saturdays and Sundays to pay off Baby Suggs' freedom.” (Part I, Chapter 6) -
Sethe gives birth to Howard
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Sethe gives birth to Buglar
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Death of Mr. Garner
“Mr. Garner was dead and his wife had a lump in her neck the size of a sweet potato and unable to speak to anyone.” (Part I, Chapter 1) -
School teacher takes over Sweet Home
“Mrs. Garner, crying like a baby, had sold his brother to pay off the debts that surfaced the minute she was widowed. Then schoolteacher arrived to put things in order. But what he did broke three more Sweet Home men and punched the glittering iron out of Sethe's eyes, leaving two open wells that did not reflect firelight.” (Part I, Chapter 1) -
Sethe gives birth to Beloved
"Not since she was a baby girl, being cared for by the eight-year-old girl who pointed out her mother to her, had she had an emergency that unmanageable. She never made the outhouse. Right in front of its door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless." Chapter 5, Part 1 -
Denver is born with Amy Denver's help
“Like a horse, she thought, but as it went on and on she thought, No, more like flooding the boat when Denver was born. So much water Amy said, “Hold on, Lu. You going to sink us you keep that up.” (Part I, Chapter 5) -
Sethe escapes from Sweet Home
"And to get to the part of the story she liked best, she had to start way back: hear the birds in the thick woods, the crunch of leaves underfoot; see her mother making her way up into the hills where no houses were likely to be. How Sethe was walking on two feet meant for standing still." Chapter 3, Part 1 -
Sethe is arrested with Denver
" As if he were sunk in the pleasure of a deep sweet sleep, he sighed the sigh that flungthe sheriff into action.
“I’ll have to take you in. No trouble now. You’ve done enough to last you. Come on now.”
She did not move.
“You come quiet, hear, and I won’t have to tie you up.” " chapter 16, part 1 -
Sethe is attacked by Schoolteacher's nephews
"“After I left you, those boys came in there and took my milk. That’s what they came in there for. Held me down and took it. I told Mrs. Garner on em." Chapter 7, Part 1 -
Sethe tries to kill her kids, but only manages to kill Beloved
“It ain’t my job to know what’s worse. It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I
know is terrible. I did that.”
“What you did was wrong, Sethe.”
“I should have gone on back there? Taken my babies back there?” Chapter 18, Part 1 -
Paul D. is in prison in Alfred, Georgia
“He wanted to know more about it, but jail talk put him back in Alfred, Georgia.” (Part I, Chapter 3) -
Denver's education at Lady Jones
"With that education pat and firmly set, she dispensed with rancor, was indiscriminately polite, saving her real affection for the unpicked children of Cincinnati, one of whom sat before her in a dress so loud it embarrassed the needlepoint chair seat." Chapter 26, Part 3 -
Baby Suggs' death
"Baby Suggs died shortly after the brothers left, with no interest whatsoever in their leave-taking or hers, and right afterward Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth the ghost that tried them so." Chatper 1, Part 1 -
Howard and Buglar run away from home
“and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old--as” (Part I, Chapter 1) -
Paul D is seduced by Beloved
"That’s how Beloved looked—gilded and shining. Paul D took to having Sethe on waking, so that later, when he went down the white stairs where she made bread under Beloved’s gaze, his head was clear" Chapter 13, Part 1 -
Paul D comes to Sethe's house
"In the evening when he came home and the three of them were all there fixing the supper table, her shine was so pronounced he wondered why Denver and Sethe didn’t see it." CHapter 6, part 1 -
Paul D returns to 124 Bluestone
"The entire railing is
wound with ribbons, bows, bouquets. Paul D steps inside. The outdoor breeze he brings with him stirs the
ribbons. " Chapter 27, part 3 -
Paul D leaves Sethe after he finds out she murdered her child
"He didn’t rush to the door. He moved slowly and when he got there he opened it before asking Sethe to put supper aside for him because he might be a little late getting back. Only then did he put on his hat." chapter 18, part 1 -
Paul D returns to 124 Bluestone
"First he stands in the back, near the cold house, amazed by
the riot of late-summer flowers where vegetables should be growing. Sweet william, morting glory, chrysanthemums." chapter 27, part 3 -
Sethe tries to stab Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick
"One point of agreement is: first they saw it and then they didn’t. When they got Sethe down on the ground and the ice pick out of her hands and looked back to the house, it was gone." Chapter 27, part 3 -
The community unites to exorcise Beloved, Beloved disappears
"Out on Bluestone Road he thought he heard a conflagration of hasty voices—loud, urgent, all speaking at once so he could not make out what they were talking about or to whom. The speech wasn’t nonsensical, exactly, nor was it tongues.
But something was wrong with the order of the words and he couldn’t describe or cipher it to save his life. All he could make out was the word mine." Chapter 19, part 2