Beloved

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Chapters 1-4

Reading Check

1. Who does “Beloved” refer to in the novel?

2. Why did Paul D serve time in the prison farm in Alfred, Georgia?

3. Where does Paul D suggest Sethe and Denver go with him?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Denver initially feel about Paul D’s arrival?

A) She feels isolated from the only family she has left.

B) She is angry that he is replacing Halle.

C) She worries that the ghost will attack him.

D) She sees him as a physical threat to her safety.

2. What is Baby Sugg’s opinion of the family moving from 124?

A) She wants them to stay so they will remember the tragedy that happened to them.

B) It’s too much trouble, and they have nowhere else to go.

C) It would be pointless, as every house in the country is filled with Black grief.

D) She wants to live the rest of her life in the house that reminds her of her freedom.

3. What does Denver think of the ghost?

A) She thinks it is terrifying.

B) She thinks it is sad and rebuked.

C) She thinks it longs to replace her.

D) She thinks it wants revenge on Sethe.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Paul D’s recollection of the corn he ate represent?

2. How does Sethe pay for Beloved’s headstone?

3. What is the tree on Sethe’s back comprised of?

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Where does Beloved come from?

2. What does Paul D say happened to Halle?

3. What story does Denver tell Beloved?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Sethe’s mother slap her in the story she tells Beloved?

A) Sethe steals something from the slave master.

B) Sethe repeats something the master said about slaves.

C) Sethe desires the same mark her mother has.

D) Sethe refuses to listen to Nan.

2. Why does Paul D resent Mister, the rooster?

A) He can’t have his identity taken from him.

B) He pecks at Paul D while he is imprisoned.

C) He gets all he needs to eat.

D) He is treated better than the slaves at Sweet Home.

3. Why is Paul D initially accepting of Beloved’s lack of a past?

A) He knows she is the ghost of Sethe’s murdered daughter.

B) He has seen many Black people arrive who don’t want to talk of their past.

C) He suspects that she is a runaway slave.

D) He knows it isn’t his place to question Sethe’s decision to let her stay.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Where does Denver’s name come from?

2. Why does Beloved choke on the raisin?

3. Where does Sethe get the earrings Beloved asks about?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. Why is the clearing that Sethe takes the girls to significant?

2. What causes Sethe’s bruises in the clearing?

3. Why is Paul D uncomfortable around Beloved?

Multiple Choice

1. What is Stamp Paid’s role in Sethe’s life?

A) He is Baby Suggs’ lover.

B) He helped her escape slavery.

C) He is the only person who knew Halle.

D) He helped deliver Denver.

2. Why does Paul move out of the house?

A) He feels a force moving him away from Sethe’s bedroom.

B) He is afraid of Beloved and wants to avoid her.

C) He feels like he does not belong in the house anymore.

D) He worries about what ideas he is giving Denver by staying with Sethe.

3. What does Sethe decide at the clearing?

A) that they should leave 124 while they can

B) that she should live her life with Paul D

C) that Beloved can stay with them

D) that Halle must be dead

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What caused Denver to go deaf?

2. How does Paul D find his way to Delaware after escaping the work camp?

3. Why is Paul D’s repeated chant of “red heart” significant?

Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. Why does Sethe murder her child?

2. How does Beloved feel about Paul D’s return to Sethe’s bed?

3. Why does Baby Suggs worry about her party?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Baby Suggs think about Mr. Garner’s kindness toward her?

A) She worries that it will end now that she is gone from Sweet Home.

B) She thinks it is just a different kind of cruelty.

C) She is grateful to have been so lucky to have a kind master.

D) She knows that it is a trick he is playing on her.

2. What does the schoolteacher think of his nephews’ behavior?

A) He thinks they should let the slaves have their dignity.

B) He approves of it and expects that it will continue.

C) He thinks the treatment was too harsh and was devaluing his property.

D) He wants no part of it and will let them do as they like.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Baby Suggs keep her name instead of changing it to Jenny Whitlock?

2. Why does Paul D say he wants a baby with Sethe?

3. Why does Paul Stamp blame himself for the murder of Beloved?

4. What do the shoes brought to Baby Suggs after Sethe’s arrest represent?

Chapters 17-19

Reading Check

1. What do the townspeople think of Sethe in the wake of her crime?

2. What does Stamp Paid show to Paul D?

3. What keeps Stamp Paid from knocking on the door of 124?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Baby Suggs do after Sethe murders her child?

A) She becomes a stoic, hard-working woman.

B) She gives up preaching and takes to her bed.

C) She fights to keep Denver and the boys.

D) She becomes distant from the family and wants them out of 124.

2. What does Sethe decide about her home after Paul D leaves?

A) that it will be herself, Denver, and Beloved going forward

B) that she needs to let go of her past and focus on raising her daughter

C) that she should send Denver back to school to escape from Beloved

D) that she cannot continue raising her child alone

3. Why does Sethe steal from her workplace?

A) She does not like the indignity of waiting for white people to finish shopping.

B) She thinks she deserves it because she does not make much money.

C) She hates her boss and wants to hurt him.

D) She does not have enough money to survive.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What alarms Sethe about the schoolteacher’s lesson?

2. What causes Sethe to suspect Beloved’s identity as her murdered child?

3. What do Halle and Sethe talk about that convinces Sethe they need to run away?

Chapters 20-24

Reading Check

1. What happens to Sixo on the night of the escape attempt?

2. Who are the three speakers in chapters 20-22?

3. Who does Beloved repeatedly say is “mine”?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Beloved refer to when she says “the men without skin”? (Page 215)

A) murdered slaves

B) white men

C) the ghosts that haunt her

D) Paul D and the other men in Sethe’s life

2. What does Paul D learn after he is put in chains?

A) his economic value as a piece of property

B) what schoolteacher intends to do to the other escapees

C) what the schoolteacher’s nephews did to Sethe

D) that the children escaped

3. What does Denver think broke Baby Suggs’ heart?

A) what Sethe did to Beloved

B) that Baby did everything right and white men still came into her yard

C) that the Lord didn’t protect her family

D) realizing that Halle had surely died

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Sethe’s milk an important symbol to her?

2. What does Paul D realize about Mr. Garner referring to the slaves as men?

3. What are the scars on Beloved’s forehead?

Chapters 25-28

Reading Check

1. What does Denver do when good starts to run out?

2. What does Sethe try to do to Mr. Bodwin?

3. What does Paul D want from Sethe at the end of the novel?

Multiple Choice

1. Why is the statuette Denver sees at the Bodwins’ house significant?

A) It represents a racist stereotype in the home of a supposedly good white person.

B) It reminds her of the stories her mother told her when she was a child.

C) It portrays a ghostly woman who is similar to Beloved.

D) It belonged to Baby Suggs.

2. Why does Ella pity Sethe?

A) She thinks Sethe has been unfairly treated by the community.

B) She was there on the day the schoolteacher came.

C) She has her own sins that she grapples with.

D) She sees Sethe as the only thing Denver has.

3. What is Sethe’s fate at the end of the book?

A) She takes to bed, similar to Baby Suggs.

B) She flees the house and is not seen again.

C) She is possessed by Beloved.

D) She dies of hunger after refusing to eat.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is significant about Beloved’s appearance when the townspeople finally see her?

2. How does the community respond to Denver’s reemergence among them?

3. Why do the people in the community forget about Beloved?