How Does Toni Morrison Use Memory In Beloved

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In the novel Beloved, Toni Morrison uses the character Paul D to demonstrate the theme of how memories can haunt a person even if he tries to hide those memories.
Paul D has a tobacco tin in his heart, which is supposed to hide the memories that he wants to overlook because those memories are from his painful past as a slave. In chapter 7, Paul D says that “would keep the rest where it belonged” as he is referring to his horrendous past and says that “where it belonged: in that tobacco tin” and he ensures that he able to keep the “lid rusted shut” (Morrison 86). Paul D wants the memories from slavery to be imprisoned in the place where his heart used to be located. When Paul D is with Sethe, he feels that he is going to bring back the memories …show more content…
In chapter 11, Beloved makes Paul D “touch her on the inside part” and when he touches the inside part of Denver he finds himself saying ‘“Red heart. Red heart. Red heart.”’ (Morrison 137-138). The red heart that Paul D is talking about the heart that he used to have and the memories in his tobacco tin start sneak out slowly. The event that triggers slow escape is Beloved because she is assumed to be the personification of the past in the novel and how painful the past can be. In an individual’s life, there are certain people or events that might remind them of the past and it can be the start of the horrible past coming back to the present. Paul D is seen in chapter 24 with “a bottle of liquor jammed in his coat pocket” and the “tobacco tin, blown open, spilled contents” and the contents “made him their play and prey” (Morrison 257-258). After Paul D discoveries the truth about Sethe, he leaves and becomes disconsolate which ushers the opening of the tobacco tin and causes Paul D misery and makes him reevaluate all the choices he made, like when he should have jumped into the fire with Sixo and regrets not seeing his family. The opening of the past can be very lethal as it can torment people with the past and make them reassess if they should be alive and the individual may start to regret every choice that they had
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