There have always been the affection between Paul D and Sethe,They have never been in a relationship together but as I read along in the book the relationship between Paul D and Sethe have always been affected by society. For example, in this quote Paul D and Sethe are talking and she finally agrees to let him into the house after a few more words said by Paul D. This quote also sets a part of the setting as Paul D states that they are outside of the house of Sethe. In this quote Paul D states how the was Sethe Acts toward certain situations show that Sethe really always love her children.The past have always been strong for Sethe because every time Sethe get stuck into memories and flashbacks the way Sethe reacts to them show that she has
In chapter 2, the beginning talks about how Sethe and Paul D were officially a couple, they are going to have sex. It has been something that Paul D has been waiting for, he has had feelings for Sethe for a long time and for him to finally have a passionate night is like a dream come true to him. They both seem to be nervous, to Sethe because this would be the man she gives herself up to other than her husband who has already past away. Paul D seems to be nervous, it might be because he’s scared that she is going to use him and/or since this is the love of his life he does not want to mess things up. It goes into detail of what is happening. It says that they are taking their clothes off and that they are short of breath. It then goes of
He becomes emasculated when he fails to have a successful physical relationship with Sethe. In fact, he shows his dependence on Sethe even more by asking her for a child. Sethe looks back and remembers, “Tucked into the well of his arm, Sethe recalled Paul D’s face in the street when he asked her to have a baby for him” (155).” Paul D asking for a baby from Sethe contributes to his emasculation as well as his sexual relations with Beloved. Paul D being taken advantage of shows that Beloved is a more powerful character than Paul D. All things considered, Paul D exposes his emotions which makes him feel weak. In the year paul escapes, 124 divides Sethe and her children. Sethe is the sole provider for the house. Her masculine qualities fill the void of a male figure. Similarly, when Sethe is in need of sustenance, Denver steps in to become a masculine figure by asking the townspeople for
Due to the extended time that they were forced to spend on the Sweet Home plantation, both Sethe and Paul D experience lifelong repercussions in the form of PTSD. For example, due to the vast amounts of physical abuse that Sethe underwent, she will forever have to live with these vindictive memories that frequently are aroused by the sight of her own scars. These frequently reoccurring memories cause Sethe to feel as though she is still living on the Sweet Home planation and leads to her having a skittish personality. In concurrence with this, Paul D also struggles to deal with the terrifying memories of the years on end that he was a slave. As he is still in touch with the slaves that he lived with on the plantation, Paul D struggles to be
Paul D and Son’s problems are fundamentally based on their lack of conception of self as oppressed black men living in a white-dominated world. Yet, their misunderstandings have different roots. Paul D’s problems stem from his inability to face his traumatic slave past. Son’s problems, however, arise from his conflicting goals of loving a black woman infatuated with white culture while becoming one with his black culture.
Sethe’s decision is still seen as the wrong decision giving that their had been other slaves who went through similar circumstances. Paul D had been right there on Sweet Home plantation and experienced everything if not more than Sethe had. He tells Sethe, “ what she did was wrong”(194). Paul D did not have kids and did not get close enough to people to love them. He does not have the love of a mother running through his veins to begin to understand the situation that Sethe was faced with. He himself has to keep things repressed in his “tobacco tin” because he know that he experienced many horrors as a slave. Ella is also a resident of Cincinnati who believed that Sethe’s decision to murder was morally wrong. Ella had the same belief as Paul
Paul D’s motivation fluctuates throughout the book, but his goal always ends up centering around finding his manhood. When Paul D resided at Sweet Home, he believed that he was a man, “so named and called by one who would know” (Morrison 147). Paul D understands manhood as a label that can be bestowed on him by another authoritative figure. Paul D lives almost as the child of Mr. Garner, and therefore he listens to what Mr. Garner says about being a man. Mr. Garner defines being a man as being able to use a gun and make choices.
To Paul D, the biggest violation is that they beat Sethe while she was pregnant. However, through physical contact he is able to learn her story and further understand what she has been through. "...he held his breasts in the palms of his hands. He rubbed his cheek on her back and learned that way her sorrow, the roots of it; its wide truck and intricate branches." Paul D found a way to learn what she had been through, and feel what she has felt, by physical connection with parts of her which had been damaged, and more specifically, her scars. In this way, scars fulfill not only a storytelling role, but serve also as a means of connection. In the passion of the moment, Paul D sees her scars as a beautiful part of Sethe's person, on page 20 he refers to her scars as a "wrought-iron maze" which he wants to explore and to know. "He saw the sculpture her back had become, like the decorative work of an ironsmith too passionate for display. " Paul D has no real words to express his emotions at that time except for "Aw, Lord, girl", but on page 18 he shows his desire to heal Sethe and make things better in another way. "He would have no peace until he had touched every ridge and leaf of it with his mouth, none of which Sethe could feel because her back skin had been dead for years. What she knew was that the responsibility for her breasts, at last, was in someone else's hands." Again, the true communication and interpersonal connection
Sethe understands that her history, filled with the pain of slavery, grief over losing her children, and guilt over Beloved's death, and tries to hide from all the anguish. However, she admits that the past seems to "always be there waiting," thereby emphasizing the idea that past horrors of life continue to haunt forever. It appears as though the power of her experience in slavery influences her so greatly that the memory triggers great pain, causing the horrifying incidents to "happen again." Even though Sethe understands that she cannot ever fully escape her history as it will come back to trouble her, she still tries to avoid them and thus attempts to shield her daughter from the horrors of history: "As for Denver, the job Sethe had of keeping her from the past that was still waiting for her was all that mattered" (45). It seems as though Sethe tries to deny the fact that history does not simply disappear. She still tries to protect Denver "from the past" even though history "waits," prepared to cause trouble and inflict the pain Sethe tries to repress. It appears as though Sethe continuously tries to fight against her memories and ignore her past in part one. For example, after she wakes, she begins "Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start the day's
Sethe lives in the shadow of her act of infanticide throughout the entire length of the book. This is because its legacy pervades itself throughout the entire novel, showing events leading up, and ways the future has been affected. The novel begins as such: “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. (Page 1)” This baby refers to Beloved, who became a ghostly presence in Sethe’s house and continuously terrorizes the house
Paul D, a fellow ex-member of Sweet Home, the same place Sethe was stationed in during her slavery years, is a character who was a victim of cruelty done by a society and a communtiy and was forced to act cruely himself. Schoolteacher, the man who represents slavery, hurts Paul D by making him realize that he has less worth than a rooster named Mister. This makes Paul D question how much exactly he is worth, and where he belongs as can be seen as he travels the states based on the advice of a Cherokee member. Paul D eventualy finds that place in 124, with Sethe. One of the most obvious scenes of Paul D committing a cruel deed is when he
Sethe begins to nurture her children, only for her children to have a growing fear that Sethe would kill them one day, enacting her children to distance themselves. Due to Sethe mother’s abandonment, Sethe in fact has never been a “daughter” and the love she displays, Paul D. describes as “too thick” (193) causes resentment from her children. As Sethe undergoes mental and physical abuse from Beloved, causing her strong personality to wither away and becoming fully dependent on Beloved, Sethe gives herself to Beloved, “[a]nything she wanted she got” (283). This is a story not to be passed on for Sethe, she allowed herself to be swallowed up by her own inability to move past her dreadful memories at Sweet Home. The past, “Beloved” began to slowly creep on her, draining away the strong woman she once was. Sethe always tried to nurture her child, the way her mother never nurtured her. However, in the end when she becomes dependent on Beloved, she becomes old and weak. Yet, her positive development occurs when Paul D tells her that she, herself is the most important thing and finally then Sethe moves on.
Sethe divulged to Paul D the catastrophic events that caused her to run away from Sweet Home, and then she surrendered her sons and daughter to a woman in a wagon because she was worried about the family’s future under the Schoolteacher’s reign. Her description of the assault was straight forward. She told Paul D and very succinctly the roughness and cruelty of those white people especially the two white boys who beat her while she was pregnant with Denver injuring her so badly that her back skin had been dead for years. She refers to the situation as
When Sethe first meets Beloved, she welcomes her with a suspiciously large magnitude. Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe never revealed her past experiences to Denver, yet the moment Beloved asks about her lost earrings, it was “the first time she had heard anything about her(Sethe’s) mother’s mother”(61). This proves that Beloved, and not anyone else, is pulling Sethe to the past, by making her recollect of her days as a slave. In addition,“it is clear why she holds on to you(Sethe), but I just can’t see why you holding on to her,” Paul mentioned(67). This shows how Paul realizes that Sethe has taken in Beloved without much reasoning, and when Beloved hums a song that Sethe happened to make up, Sethe fully but blindly embraces Beloved as family. In fact, she “had gone to bed smiling,” anxious to “unravel the proof for the conclusion she had already leapt to”(181). This shows how consumed by Beloved she is.
First, she “moves” him to the rocking chair in the kitchen, then to Baby Suggs’ old room, then to the storeroom, and then finally to the cold house. Her “moving” of Paul D meant that he wasn’t physically near Sethe as much as he once was, fulfilling Beloved’s selfish intentions to have Sethe for herself. For Paul D, the fact that Beloved was “moving” him meant that he was being controlled once again, as shown in the passage, “he had come to be a rag doll—picked up and put back down anywhere any time by a girl young enough to be his daughter” (Morrison 148). Being controlled like this, much like he once was by the hands of the schoolteacher, was a source of shame and humiliation for Paul D, for “there was nothing he was able to do about it” (Morrison 148), making him feel like he was back at Sweet Home and a “slave” once again. In addition to moving him, Beloved also requests that Paul D, “touch [her] on the inside part” (Morrison 137) and to call her by her name. For Beloved, this is sexual action symbolizes Paul D’s betrayal of Sethe and shows that he does not truly love her, perhaps giving Beloved the idea that the relationship between the two will eventually end and she will have her mother to herself. Paul D, on the other hand, wants to believe that the requests mean absolutely nothing. However,
Paul D who had a horrible history at the home sweet home before coming to the house 124. He had a major role making the house to life again and stopping the baby ghost who had haunted the house for many years. Paul D left the house 124 after what happened between him and Beloved and hearing that Sethe was responsible for murdering her own baby. Remembering the past got him the courage to go back to Sethe because no can change the past but can use it as a weapon for future. His visit to Sethe viewed that she was lifeless without Beloved and she thinks that she is nothing with her. Indeed, he told her she is better without her and she was just a past to remember “you your best thing, Sethe. You are”. Paul D confronting Sethe for a better future and starting again and learn from the past. Perhaps it may also refer that the black people were their best thing and that her decision was the best thing she did to protect her children. Indeed, to remember the past of slavery and being their best thing to not forget the horrible past of their suffering because of their racial