Beloved is "hungry" for a number of different things; in
fact, her "hunger" is almost insatiable. In a literal sense, she craves sweets, a fact
that Denver discovers early in her stay at the house. Denver notes
that
"...sugar could always be counted on to please
(Beloved). It was as though sweet things were what she was born for. Honey as well as
the wax it came in, sugar sandwiches, the sludgy molasses gone hard and brutal in the
can, lemonade, taffy and any type of dessert Sethe brought home from the restaurant. She
gnawed a cane stick to flax and kept the strings in her mouth long after the syrup had
been sucked away."
Beloved
also "hungers" for Sethe. She cannot take her eyes off
her;
"Sethe
was licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved's eyes. Like a familiar, she hovered...she rose
early in the dark to be there, waiting...when Sethe came down to make fast bread...she
was in the window at two when Sethe returned, or the doorway; then the porch, its steps,
the path, the road, till finally, surrendering to the habit, Beloved began inching down
Bluestone Road...to meet Sethe and walk her back to
124."
Beloved is also
"hungry" for stories, particularly those about Sethe's life, and her baby. Sethe
discovers that storytelling becomes "a way to feed Beloved," just like the "sweet
things" that Denver has found that bring their strange visitor such
satisfaction.
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