Beloved

thumb|right|335 pxBeloved is a 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War (1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Sethe, who escaped slavery during 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue slaves across state borders. Sethe killed her two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be recaptured and taken back to Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation from which Sethe recently fled. A woman presumed to be her daughter, called Beloved, returns years later to haunt Sethe's home at 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. The story opens with an introduction to the ghost: "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom."
The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was a finalist for the 1987 National Book Award. It was adapted during 1998 into a movie of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey. A New York Times survey of writers and literary critics ranked it the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006.
The book's dedication reads "Sixty Million and more," dedicated to the Africans and their descendants who died as a result of the Atlantic slave trade. The book's epigraph is Romans 9:25.
== Tossup Questions ==
# One character in this novel notices the phrase "At Yo' Service" on a statue while speaking to Janey, and that character's mother is employed at Mr. Sawyer's restaurant. One character rushes the abolitionist Mr. Bodwin with an icepick at the end of this novel when she mistakes him for schoolteacher. This novel's protagonist is guided across the Ohio River by Stamp Paid. Denver grows jealous of Paul D after he arrives at 124 Bluestone Road, a house previously inhabited by Baby Suggs and haunted by the ghost of the protagonist's daughter. For 10 points, name this novel about the former slave Sethe's infanticide of the title character, written by Toni Morrison.
# One character in this novel seeks help from her teacher Lady Jones and Mr. Bodwin, who is attacked after being mistaken for Schoolteacher. The protagonist's husband is seen with butter slathered on his face when he goes mad. Before crossing the Ohio River, the protagonist has a baby whom she names after Amy Denver. Later, Paul D lives with the central family at 124 Bluestone Road, a house that is haunted by the title ghost. For 10 points, name this Toni Morrison novel about the family of the former slave Sethe.
# One character in this novel temporarily loses her hearing after asking if she was put in jail for murder. That character is saved by Stamp Paid in the woodshed, and the protagonist of this novel attacks Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick after going insane. Another character believes that his heart is a tobacco tin with the lid closed tight, and the protagonist marries Baby Suggs' son Halle. Sixo and Paul D. fail to escape the Sweet Home Plantation in, For 10 points, what novel which sees Sethe kill her infant child to protect her from slavery, a work of Toni Morrison?
# The phrase "men without skin" appears in this novel's three chapters of first-person "unspeakable thoughts." One character in this novel mutters "that ain't her mouth" to an image of a woman in a newspaper. Its characters include a man whose heart is like a rusted "tobacco tin" after he escapes a chain gang in Alfred, Georgia and the ferryman Stamp (*) Paid. This novel contains a passage set before Schoolteacher's arrival in which Baby Suggs' son Halle engages in bestiality like the other men of Sweet Home, Kentucky. Paul D and Denver both try to resist the effects of this novel's title character. For 10 points, identify this 1987 novel whose title ghost haunts its fugitive slave mother Sethe [SETH-uh], a work of Toni Morrison.
# Near the end of this novel, the protagonist attacks her benefactor Mr. Bodwin with an icepick, mistaking him for the wicked Schoolteacher. This novel's protagonist lives at 124 Bluestone with her friend, Paul D, and daughter, Denver. While staying with Baby Suggs, the protagonist of this novel is found by her former owners, then kills one of her children to save her from enslavement. For 10 points, name this novel in which Sethe is haunted by her dead child's ghost, written by Toni Morrison.