Throughout the book we have learned that Paul D’s experiences as a slave has been full of torture and horrific events. In the novel Beloved, Morrison makes Paul D’s journey that of to define manhood. Throughout his life Paul D’s idea of manhood was slowly destroyed by slavery. While at Sweet Home, under Mr. Garner, Paul D believed being a man is not naturally given but bestowed upon by the white man. But when Mr. Garner dies and Schoolteacher takes over power over Sweet Home, Paul D must redefine manhood. Unlike Mr. Garner, who thought of slaves as men, Schoolteacher considers slaves to be sub-human and animal like. Paul D now just becomes nothing more than a product to the white man. When Schoolteacher sells Paul D to another slave owner, his belief of being a product grows stronger. By selling him, Paul D views that as stripping away his manhood and making him an animal. Soon Paul D is sent to Georgia, where he is part of a chain gang. Once again Morrison, by having his part of a chain gang, takes away his manhood and shows that the white man has control over every slaves. With his manhood shattered, Paul D manages to run away.
Once he gets to 124, Paul D begins to move away from his past to imagine a future with Sethe. But his past haunts him as his love for Sethe is tested by Beloved.
“Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you’d have a little love left for the next one.” (Morrison, page 45)
Here Paul D is testing Sethe’s vision and her love for her children. Because of his past, he understands the danger in loving someone or caring about something. He views love as something that can be taken away by the white man, just like his manhood. I believe that his experience makes him guarded when it comes to opening up, and that is why he sees Sethe’s love for her kids as a danger. But I think the time he has spent with Sethe has allowed him to open up. In the end he sees how much Sethe is suffering from losing Beloved, and he gets over his insecurity of love.
I love how you made connection between Paul D's manhood, and love, and the fact that both can be destroyed by slavery. By running away, I feel that Paul D reclaimed his manhood. But the idea of love was harder for him to grasp, and he still feared that someday love would no longer exist because of slavery.
ReplyDeleteIT seems to me that Paul D focused more on the idea of love than he did on his manhood. Love is much more dangerous than his manhood. Love can put a target on someone else's back, and hurt you in the longrun, whereas his manhood is something that will always be there, it will just be repressed for awhile.
True, Paul D did focus more on love than his manhood. But i do feel like they went hand in hand. The manhood he felt with Mr.Garner gave him the belief that like men, he had the right for emotions and feelings. But once he was considered a slave again by schoolteacher he felt more like and animal as he was treated like one, and animals are never kept with family or loved ones. Or even considered to be able to have emotions so deep as that. Paul D does start to open up once with Sethe, it was a great way to show how just because something is forced into your mind doesnt mean it will always have to be there.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go so far to say that animals are never kept with their family/loved ones. I think what Morrison was trying to imply was that the slaves were not being treated humanely, which itself is an understatement, not that they were being isolated from family.
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