Confusion with chapters 20-24

Chapters twenty to twenty four are very complex chapters that I did not understand. These four chapters are interior monologues by Beloved, Denver, and Sethe. The style of these chapter are very confusing and is very similar to poetry. I spoke with someone and tried to figure out where exactly the three women where. Ms. Lord explained to me that some people believe that they were on a slave ship. They kept talking about how the "men without skin" were throwing off dead African Americans into the sea. I reread these chapters, and a few things made more sense in the aspect of them being on a slave ship. This made me wonder, why were they on a slave ship? Beloved has most likely never been on a slave ship and if she has she would not have remembered it. So it is most likely that they are not literally on a slave ship. So then what does the slave ship symbolize? We knew Beloved was dead, so we questioned if there was a connection about where they were and Beloved being dead. Then it came to me, There is a famous saying in funerals that they person may be dead but they are not gone, they are in everyone hearts because that person will be remembered. Is this why Beloved is haunting Sethe so strongly. Everyone thought about Beloved all of the time before Paul D came into the picture. Is Beloved in between life and death? She is physically dead but her spirit is strong and alive. While Sethe on the other hand was the opposite. She may have been physically alive but she was mentally gone. She is stuck in the past and all she thinks about is Beloved. Nobody really did care about her or spoke with her except Denver. This explains why they are both on the slave ship. The Slave ship represents the in between of life and death, which helps me comprehend these four chapters a bit more.