Paul D and Beloved: Past or Future?

In class the other day, we had a discussion over whether Paul D was the past or the future. We seemed to conclude that Beloved represented the future and Paul D the past, but after some more reading, I have to disagree with this idea.

First of all, a ghost itself goes against the idea of the future. In my opinion, Beloved is merely a remnant of the past, something that could have been had Sethe not killed her. After Sethe (finally) realizes that Beloved is her daughter, it looks like she gives up on her life. She doesn't seem to care about her work anymore and believes that "there is no world outside her door." She then "locks the door tight behind her" and wallows in her past with her children. I'm reminded of the last few lines of Their Eyes Were Watching God when Janie "pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes!" Janie and Sethe both withdraw to their pasts and it doesn't seem like they will comeback to the present.

But where does Paul D stand in all of this? His motives and intentions are pretty unclear. At first, it seems like staying at 124 is something he really wants. He wants to "make a life" with Sethe, settle down, and become a more family man. This seems like a possible future and positive direction for the family. And yet, after a period of time, Paul D begins having 'house-fits,' where he moves from room to room, farther and farther away from the house. He eventually ends up in the cold house, sleeping with only newspapers to shield him from the cold of winter. He does this to get away from a woman's house which he believes to be 'binding' him. Paul D believes he is "moving out of 124" Bluestone.

Yet this statement seems contradictory to what Paul D actually says. He explains that while he can't remain in the house, he also doesn't want to be anywhere else. Instead of telling Sethe that he is having trouble living in her house, he proposes the idea of having a kid, which would forever tie him down to Sethe, her family, and her house. Perhaps Paul D's itch to leave the house has more to do with Beloved and Denver. Paul D believes that his desire to leave the house has nothing to do with Sethe, who he claims to love. But this argument, too, has flaws. At times, Paul D acts as though Sethe is just a plaything. True, there are the occasional appreciations of her character and personality but it seems like, above all, Paul D just likes sleeping with her (and this too is questionable since he sexually engages with Beloved...).

But despite his flaws, I feel like Paul D would be a much better influence on Sethe's life than Beloved. True, Paul D brings past memories of Sweet Home, but as the carnival suggests, he can create new memories and experiences with Sethe and reintroduce her to the town (town life being something Sethe describes as "28 days of freedom"). I don't see Beloved as a healthy future, so I hope Sethe chooses the man over the ghost.

Graffiti

After the discussion of Style Wars on Thursday night, I was again getting a ride home from Natalie Hummel. One of the things we had talked about after the documentary was the graffiti between the Courier Café and Pizza M's in downtown Urbana. Curious, Natalie and I took a field trip to see the artwork mentioned during the class discussion. Here's what we saw:

I thought the image of the bikers along what is known as Biker Alley was incredible (If you haven't seen it, it's worth the trip). What impressed me the most about the piece was its size. It spanned across an entire wall and a half and was positioned high up off the ground. One thing that I didn't fully grasp while watching the documentary was the sheer scale of these murals. It's one thing to look at a screen, it's another to stand by a wall and look up at the real thing. 

But then I realized that the graffiti in Urbana isn't incredibly large compared to the sizes of pieces in other cities or other countries...

No matter the size, there's no question whether graffiti is artwork or not, even if you're only writing your name.

(not really graffiti since it only exists in digital form, but close enough)

Orange Scraps and Carmine Velvet

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who has noticed this, but there has been a surprising lack of color in the book Beloved, by Toni Morrison. While Invisible Man was loaded with references to black and white, Morrison's novel is more subtle as to when it mentions color. This leads me to believe that when Morrison uses color, she does so very deliberately.

Perhaps the most described color in Beloved is the color red. One of the first descriptions we get of 124 Bluestone is the "red and undulating light" that Paul D finds when he steps into the house. The red light here seems to represent the spirit of the dead baby which isn't evil, but 'sad,' according to Sethe (although the emotions of the baby can be disputed). "Red baby blood," the dying roses at the carnival, and Sixo's fiery red tongue are other examples of color imagery that, like the spirit of the dead baby, evokes images of the past, death, and of things lost. Red is also used to describe Amy Denver's velvet. The carmine velvet sounds rich and luxuriant but I can't help but wonder if this vision of velvet is only a dream that Amy will never realize. Morrison also uses red to symbolize white supremacy and brutality, by using it to talk about Mister's red comb and Sethe's red chokecherry tree. Overall, the color red that Morrison uses seems to symbolize death and suffering, or longing and the past

There are a few other colors that seem to hold some significance in the novel. Orange, for example, is noted as being "wild." The quilt with the orange patches gives life to Beloved when she's sick and gives comfort to Baby Suggs before she dies. However, I think that orange too is tied to the suffering in the house because the blanket is for the bodies of the sick and dying. Pink is also an important color because it is described as being "the last color Sethe remembered." This is because pink is the color of Beloved's headstone, and thus the color becomes yet another to be associated with death. Orange and pink are quite similar in shade to red, and so maybe that's why Morrison uses them all in a morbid way.

I think it is interesting that white and black are not more commonly used in the novel. It's clear that Baby Suggs, at least, hates whites but there are no sections of Beloved that are like the paint factory scene in Invisible Man. Rather Morrison depicts black and white as "absences" of color and instead tries to point out the importance of other colors that aren't so closely linked to slavery.