Sethe attacks Mr. Bodwin

Sethe, believing Mr. Bodwin is schoolteacher come to take Beloved, attacks him with an ice pick. Denver and the other women intervene, wrestling Sethe to the ground and disarming her. Mr. Bodwin is unharmed, but the incident reveals the depth of Sethe's trauma and her willingness to kill again to protect her child. In the chaos, Beloved disappears. She is never seen again. The community, having witnessed the event, is left to make sense of what happened, and they quickly begin to forget Beloved, as if she were a bad dream.