
                          BEFORE READING THE NOVEL

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To set the stage for reading Beloved and to help judge students' readiness
for reading this novel, select several of the following open-ended
questions and have students respond to them either orally or in writing.

  1. What do you know about slavery in the South before the Civil War?
  2. What do you know about the treatment of black people immediately after
     emancipation?
  3. What do you know about the treatment of women slaves?
  4. What literature written by black authors have you read?
  5. What moral dilemmas have you or anyone you know faced?
  6. What literary characters have you read about who have been faced with
     a moral dilemma?
  7. What have you experienced that was so difficult for you to understand
     that you kept trying to explain it to yourself and your friends?

Emphasizing that there is no one right answer to these questions, have
students share their responses with you and/or each other. There are
several ways to do this, and they can be used separately or in combination.

  1. Students discuss their responses in small groups.
  2. Students share their responses in a whole class discussion.
  3. The teacher reads student responses and writes back to each student.

The students' comments will enable the teacher to determine the
experiential background that individual students and the group as a whole
bring to the reading of Beloved. Their responses will also expand the
students' general awareness about the topics and themes essential to an
understanding of the novel. Written responses and oral discussions will
help the teacher decide if further pre-reading activities are necessary to
prepare students for the severity of the events they will encounter in the
novel.

If it seems that students may not be ready to read the novel, particularly
because of its harsh subject matter, the teacher may wish to ease them into
it by reading related literature written for children or young adults. Some
examples include:

   * Nettie's Trip South by Ann Turner (Macmillan, 1987). This is a
     picturebook depicting a young child's trip to the South during the
     time of slavery. Nettie sees slaves bought at auctions and becomes ill
     and upset.

   * The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury, 1973). This is the story of a
     young boy who is captured in Africa and taken aboard a slave ship. His
     job is to play the flute and make the slaves dance so that they stay
     physically fit throughout the trip from Africa to America. This book
     won the 1974 Newbery Award.

   * To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (Dial Books/E.P. Dutton, 1968). This
     collection of excerpts from slave narratives is arranged in
     chronological order. Their stories are told through these documents.
     This is a Newbery Honor Book.

   * The Black Americans: A History in Their Own Words--1619-1983 by Milton
     Meltzer (Harper & Row, 1984). The first sections of this collection of
     slave narratives are particularly germane to the time period covered
     in Beloved.

   * A Girl Called Boy by Belinda Hurmence (Clarion, 1982). This is a
     historical novel in which eleven-year-old Blanche Overtha Yancey (Boy
     for short) is transported back in time and experiences the life her
     ancestors lived as plantation slaves and fugitives.

   * Tancy by Belinda Hurmence (Clarion, 1984). In this work of historical
     fiction, Tancy is a young woman when slavery is abolished. She has
     been a favored house slave but now she sets out to find her mother.
     Her search takes her to the Freedmen's Bureau and Shantytown, two
     places where she encounters many former slaves adjusting to their new
     freedom.

Adult literature that would also help to prepare students for reading
Beloved include:

   * Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (originally published in
     1852, now available as a Signet Classic). The Underground Railroad is
     vividly depicted in this classic work.

   * Roots by Alex Haley (Doubleday, 1976). Alex Haley traces his ancestry
     from slave days to modern times in this best-selling book. The film
     version of this book might also be shown as a pre-reading activity.

Most of the books listed above provide insights into their historical
times. Extensive reviews of or lectures on the historical background of
Beloved are unnecessary at this point. Many of the activities suggested in
the "After Reading the Novel" section of this guide will address the
historical aspects of Beloved.

A further pre-reading activity that could help provide a foundation for
reading Beloved is to discuss questions that may result from the students'
reading. These questions could be discussed again after students have read
the novel. Some possible questions might include:

  1. What would it be like to be a slave?
  2. Can we escape our pasts?
  3. Is murder ever justified?
  4. How do legends develop?

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