"Beloved" by Toni Morrison (480 - 563 pp)

Now Sethe spent more time at home, playing with Beloved and coming to her work later and later till the moment when she was fired. And instead of looking for another work, the woman played all harder with her girl who never got enough of anything. That’s why while playing or staying outside, Denver waited for the moment when Beloved was in danger (as the girl thought her mother could repeat her sin). But that time Sethe was in danger, as under Beloved’s influence Sethe lost her mind and forget about her daughter.

   Beloved got anything what she wanted; and when Sethe had nothing to give her, she invented desires, then the arguments began: complain from Beloved and apology from Sethe. The first one accused the woman of leaving her, of not being nice to her, not smiling to her. Sethe begged her to forgive her, listing the reasons that Beloved was everything for her, she was more important for her than her own life. But the young woman wasn’t interested. And in order to deserve forgiveness Sethe served the girl (who was not much older than Denver).

   So the family had no money, no food, and Denver understood that in such a situation only she had to leave the house and ask somebody for help. Her former teacher Mrs. Lady Jones helped the girl cooking and asking other people for help. Later everybody knew about Sethe’s dead daughter that had come back and now whipped her mother, and that Sethe had lost her mind. That’s why one day all those people came to the woman’s house and began praying.

  Sethe was breaking a lump of ice into chunks, when she heard the voices. And then, holding Beloved’s hand, went outside and began trembling. When she was calm, the woman saw a white man, who was driving past, and attacked him with the ice pinch in her hand. During that moment Beloved stood alone smiling, but then she vanished, and nobody saw her. Only behind Sethe’s house near the river, Beloved’s footprints came and went, came and went.