Through part one Beloved motivates Sethe to tell stories of the ordeals she faced in her past.  All of the memories hold a certain tension when they were brought to the surface.  Reawakening the past is a reoccurring pattern that we’ve come to anticipate as it brings a new element to the story.  Instead of the novel reading in a progressive manner, we are giving blots of images from the characters’ past, however it is our goal to piece them together, similar to the film Memento.

In chapter three, Amy told Sethe “Anything dead coming back to life hurts”, this has been the emphasis of the first part of the story.  From the start of the novel, Paul D was the most reluctant to bring up the memories they all shared, he saw it as a dark cloud looming over them but later changed his perspective.  The characters realized that by recalling their past they are able to deal with the burden, as they say getting the “weight” of their shoulders.  Paul D’s personality depicts him as a typical “man” from the old days; courageous, strong, and willful.   However, when he was punished by the bit that was placed into his mouth, he felt his identity diminish.  He felt like a lesser man, which is one of the reasons why he was so reluctant to speak of his their past.  The slaves often used songs to tell their stories, with Paul D being no exception.  Another reason for the hesitance in the characters speaking up their past was the  control their slave masters had over their speech.  This was evident when Sethe was whipped after reporting her milk stolen.