Direct Interior Monologue from Morrison’s Beloved (1987)
From page 236
(Beginning of chapter 20)
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BELOVED, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back
of her own free will and I don't have to explain a thing. I didn't
have time to explain before because it had to be done quick.
Quick. She had to be safe and I put her where she would be.
But my love was tough and she back now. I knew she would
be. Paul D ran her off so she had no choice but to come back to
me in the flesh. I bet you Baby Suggs, on the other side,
helped. I won't never let her go. I'll explain to her, even
though I don't have to. Why I did it. How if I hadn't killed her
she would have died and that is something I could not bear to
happen to her. When I explain it she'll understand, because she
understands everything already. I'll tend her as no mother ever
tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no
more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody
else—and the one time I did it was took from me—they held
me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby. Nan had
to nurse whitebabies and me too because Ma'am was in the
rice. The little whitebabies got it first and I got what was left.
Or none. There was no nursing milk to call my own. I know
what it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to
fight and holler for it, and to have so little left. I'll tell Beloved
about that; she'll understand. She my daughter. The one I
managed to have milk for and to get it to her even after they
stole it; after they handled me like I was the cow, no, the goat,
back behind the stable because it was too nasty to stay in with
the horses. But I wasn't too nasty to cook their food or take
care of Mrs. Garner. I tended her like I would have tended my
own mother if she needed me. If they had let her out the rice
field, because I was the one she didn't throw away. I couldn't
have done more for that woman than I would my own ma'am if
she was to take sick and need me and I'd have stayed with her till
she got well or died.
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Guiding Questions:
• How does this passage clarify Sethe’s impression of past events?
• What inconsistencies do you see in Sethe’s impressions, and what affect do these inconsistencies
have upon the reader?
Direct Interior Monologue from Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)
From page 738
(Beginning of final chapter, which is comprised of one sentence spanning 46 pages)
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YES BECAUSE HE NEVER DID A THING LIKE THAT BEFORE AS ASK
to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City
Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with
a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting to
that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great
leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself
and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out
4d for her methylated spirit telling me all her ailments she
had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes
and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God
help the world if all the women were her sort down on bathingsuits and lownecks of course nobody wanted her to wear I
suppose she was pious because no man would look at her twice
I hope Ill never be like her a wonder she didnt want us to
cover our faces but she was a welleducated woman certainly
and her gabby talk about Mr Riordan here and Mr Riordan
there I suppose he was glad to get shut of her and her dog
smelling my fur and always edging to get up under my petticoats especially then still I like that in him polite to old women
like that and waiters and beggars too hes not proud out of
nothing but not always if ever he got anything really serious
the matter with him its much better for them to go into a hospital where everything is clean but I suppose Id have to dring it
into him for a month yes and then wed have a hospital nurse
next thing on the carpet have him staying there till they throw
him out or a nun maybe like the smutty photo he has shes as
much a nun as Im not yes because theyre so weak and puling
when theyre sick they want a woman to get well if his nose
bleeds youd think it was O tragic and that dyinglooking one
off the south circular when he sprained his foot at the choir
party at the sugarloaf Mountain the day I wore that dress Miss
Stack bringing him flowers the worst old ones she could find at
the bottom of the basket anything at all to get into a mans
bedroom with her old maids voice trying to imagine he was
dying on account of her to never see thy face again though he
looked more like a man with his beard a bit grown in the bed
father was the same besides I hate bandaging and dosing when
off
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Guiding Questions:
• How does the impression of Molly Bloom created in this passage compare to the impression of
her created in previous chapters?
• How does the literary style of this passage reinforce or contrast this previous impression?