Beloved: Part 3

by Toni Morrison
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Morrison's novel tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who is haunted by her past.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Here are links to our lists for other works by Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. assert
    insist on having one's opinions and rights recognized
    When once or twice Sethe tried to assert herself—be the unquestioned mother whose word was law and who knew what was best—Beloved slammed things, wiped the table clean of plates, threw salt on the floor, broke a windowpane.
  2. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    It was April and everything alive was tentative.
  3. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    With that education pat and firmly set, she dispensed with rancor, was indiscriminately polite, saving her real affection for the unpicked children of Cincinnati, one of whom sat before her in a dress so loud it embarrassed the needlepoint chair seat.
  4. disdain
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Maybe they were sorry for the years of their own disdain.
  5. cajole
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    Washing, cooking, forcing, cajoling her mother to eat a little now and then, providing sweet things for Beloved as often as she could to calm her down.
  6. indulgence
    the act of gratifying a desire
    Privacy was an adult indulgence, but when he got to be one, he seemed not to need it.
  7. antagonism
    an actively expressed feeling of dislike and hostility
    It made him the most visible and memorable person at every gathering, and cartoonists had fastened onto the theatricality of his white hair and big black mustache whenever they depicted local political antagonism.
  8. sedition
    an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority
    Nothing since was as stimulating as the old days of letters, petitions, meetings, debates, recruitment, quarrels, rescue and downright sedition.
  9. circumvent
    avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing
    Yet it had worked, more or less, and when it had not, he and his sister made themselves available to circumvent obstacles.
  10. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    They saw Denver sitting on the steps and beyond her, where the yard met the road, they saw the rapt faces of thirty neighborhood women.
  11. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    Sifting daylight dissolves the memory, turns it into dust motes floating in light.
  12. skiff
    a small boat propelled by oars or by sails or by a motor
    Keane and his friend, a Sergeant Rossiter, confiscated a skiff and the three of them floated in Mobile Bay.
  13. disembark
    exit from a ship, vehicle, or aircraft
    Keane and Rossiter disembarked at Memphis to look for their commanders.
  14. stifling
    characterized by oppressive heat and humidity
    It has no sheets, and because the roof windows do not open the room is stifling.
  15. lichen
    a plant occurring in crusty patches on tree trunks or rocks
    Where the memory of the smile under her chin might have been and was not, a latch latched and lichen attached its apple-green bloom to the metal.
Created on Sat Dec 14 17:25:07 EST 2013 (updated Mon Jul 28 11:01:48 EDT 2025)

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