Halle Character Analysis in Beloved

A male slave at Sweet Home, Halle is Sethe’s husband and the father of her children. After seeing Schoolteacher’s nephews hold down Sethe and take her breast milk, he goes mad. The last anyone sees of him is Paul D seeing him at a butter churn, smearing butter all over his face in insanity.

Halle Quotes in Beloved

The Beloved quotes below are all either spoken by Halle or refer to Halle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The last of [Baby Suggs’] children, whom she barely glanced at when he was born because it wasn’t worth the trouble to try to learn features you would never see change into adulthood anyway. Seven times she had done that: held a little foot; examined the fat fingertips with her own—fingers she never saw become the male or female hands a mother would recognize anywhere. She didn’t know to this day what their permanent teeth looked like; or how they held their heads when they walked.

Related Characters: ,

Page Number and Citation: 163

Explanation and Analysis:

Remembering his own price, down to the cent, that schoolteacher was able to get for him, [Paul D] wondered what Sethe’s would have been. What had Baby Suggs’ been? How much did Halle owe, still, besides his labor? What did Mrs. Garner get for Paul F? More than nine hundred dollars? How much more? Ten dollars? Twenty?

Related Characters: , ,

Page Number and Citation: 269

Explanation and Analysis:

Halle Character Timeline in Beloved

The timeline below shows where the character Halle appears in Beloved. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Storytelling, Memory, and the Past Theme Icon

...was easy and that “being alive was the hard part.” Sethe asks about her husband Halle, who she hasn’t seen since fleeing Sweet Home and thinks may be dead, but Paul... (full context)

...and recalls how her children had been sneaked out of Sweet Home and sent to Halle’s mother, Baby Suggs, and how Sethe had run away after, to meet up with them.... (full context)

...men, though other slave-owners told him that no slaves could be men. Sethe eventually chose Halle, a Sweet Home man who had worked extra time to buy freedom for his mother,... (full context)

...families. Baby Suggs, for example, was separated from all of her eight children except for Halle. (full context)

...that desire has failed to live up to his fantasy. Sethe remembers deciding to marry Halle and asking Mrs. Garner if there would be a wedding for them. Mrs. Garner simply... (full context)

Sethe and Paul D each separately remember when Sethe and Halle had sex out in the cornfield on Sweet Home, where they thought no one would... (full context)

Sethe tells Beloved that she got the earrings from Mrs. Garner when she married Halle. She had heard about Mrs. Garner’s wedding and wanted some kind of celebration or meal... (full context)

As Sethe and Paul D argue, the conversation shifts to Halle. Paul D tells her that Halle actually saw when the white boys held her down... (full context)

Sethe is shaken by this revelation. She is upset that Halle saw the whole thing and didn’t try to stop it. Paul D says that the... (full context)

...for more.” She wonders why she hasn’t gone crazy from all of her suffering, as Halle evidently did. (full context)

Sethe can’t stop thinking about Halle going mad. She misses Baby Suggs and wishes that she were around to help her... (full context)

The novel flashes back to Baby Suggs waiting for Sethe and Halle to make it to 124 from Sweet Home. She is delighted to see Sethe arrive... (full context)

Baby Suggs remembers when Halle and she were bought for Sweet Home. She had injured her hip and could not... (full context)

At Sweet Home, Baby Suggs realized that she and Halle had arrived at a better place, but were still slaves. The Garners ran “a special... (full context)

Once Halle buys Baby Suggs’ freedom, Mr. Garner delivers Baby Suggs to the Bodwins, who will help... (full context)

...D about her escape from Sweet Home, and how she did it by herself, without Halle’s help. She talks about how she felt when she arrived and felt freedom. She realizes... (full context)

Sethe remembers talking to Halle about Schoolteacher, asking if he thought Schoolteacher was different from Mr. Garner. Halle said it... (full context)

...younger, Denver was afraid Sethe would kill her, too. She would dream that her dad, Halle, was coming. She idealized Halle as “an angel man.” Denver’s monologue ends like Sethe’s, insisting... (full context)

...Paul D thinks of his price and wonders what the monetary values of Baby Suggs, Halle, and others is. He thinks of Sixo laughing as he died because the Thirty-Mile Woman... (full context)

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Halle Character Analysis

Halle Quotes in Beloved

Halle Character Timeline in Beloved

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