Malice (noun) –
(1) desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness
(2) Law. evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others.
These vocabulary words was written in chapter thirteen of “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.
Paul D looked up from the stew meat.”You come upstairs. Where you belong,” she said, “… and stay there.”The threads of malice creeping toward him from Beloved’s side of the table were held harmless in the warmth of Sethe’s smile.
When I first came across this word, I noticed the beginning of the word starting out with “mal”, usually this mean something bad. I had another experience with another word with the same beginning “malevolent”, and as seen from another student, this word means to harm another person. I learned that there is a similarity between this two words.
According to this scene, the narrator was stating that there was evil sense or harmfulness coming from Beloved side of the table. However, due to Sethe’s smile, warmth and comfort, he knew he was safe.
Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/malice
