Veiled in what Anne Tyler calls the "gauzy mists of magic," Beloved opens with the house number 124, a repeated mantra that suggests many numerological possibilities. On one symbolic level, the numbers 1 + 2 + 4 add up to 7, the number of letters on Beloved's headstone. In Christian lore, the number 7 represents charity, grace, and the Holy Spirit, as well as completion and perfection. As we will see later in the novel, Beloved’s death signified the end of all of these elements in both Sethe’s life and the life of her family. When Beloved died, the family lost the charity of the townspeople, the grace of a happy life together, and Baby Suggs’s connection to the Holy Spirit. The family became incomplete and imperfect. The number 124 emphasizes this incompleteness when examined sequentially. The number 3 is missing from the sequence, just as Sethe’s third child is missing from the family. A more complicated arithmetic equation denotes Sethe's arrival at Sweet Home and her selection of Halle as her husband, an act that leads to four children, doubling of one into two and two into four.
Chapter 1 introduces a number of motifs (repeating ideas or images) that support Morrison's themes. In addition to numbers, the most significant motifs that reappear in later chapters are these:
* Bestiality, or having animal-like characteristics. This motif is demonstrated by references to the "baby's venom" and Sethe being down "on all fours." References that appear later in the novel include Sethe calling her unborn child a “little antelope” and Garner's slaves copulating with calves.
* Colors, particularly the "gray and white house on Bluestone Road" and the white stairs that lead to the bedrooms on the second floor.
* Plants, especially the clinging chamomile sap that Sethe hurries to rinse from her legs, the cherry gum and oak bark used for making ink, and the sycamore trees that become gallows for hanging slaves. The poignant touch of the chokeberry tree on Sethe's back compels the reader to empathize with her suffocating misery.
* Breastfeeding, a central issue, which provides Sethe's infant with food and the ravaging white boys a source of mammary rape.
* The heart, a welcoming, nurturing image implied by the "pool of red and undulating light" that invites Paul D to settle into Sethe's house. Red becomes Beloved's signature and is the hue that Baby Suggs avoided late in life when she focused only on colors.
* Iron, a dual symbol that describes Sethe's eyes and backbone and also represents Paul D's bondage in two torture devices, one bridling his tongue and another collaring him with outstretched tines (prongs) so that he couldn’t lie down or lean back in comfort.
* Superstition, indicated by Paul D's awareness of the ghost baby and his reference to the "headless bride," as well as Denver's memories of her brothers telling her "die-witch! stories."
* Female genitalia, briefly implied by women "way past the Change of Life" (menopause).
* Resurrection, the hopeful image implicit in the "dawn-colored stone studded with star chips."
