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.
I feel like Paul D does not represent the past or the future but the idea of the sealed tobacco tin and I would argue that because of this he is not necessarily better for Sethe (perhaps we shouldn't exactly be thinking about it as who is better because both serve certain purposes to her). He represents this idea of keeping the past at bay in order to stay sane, and as you say the potential of creating new experiences. There is something to that but at the same time, being able to live with the past in the present as opposed to attempting to seal it away can arguably provide more inner freedom as well. Ultimately, it probably comes down to taking both ideologies.
ReplyDeleteIn light of part 3, I would say that Denver represents the future--but that's much less clear in the early chapters. She seems to shy away from any idea of a future the same way Sethe does, and she seems just as haunted. I agree that the very idea of haunting implies the past, and the idea that the future, as the present, will be saturated with the past. Beloved comes to saturate Sethe's present, by part 3, a living embodiment of the past sucking the life out of the present and future. When she leaves, though, Sethe and Paul can begin to contemplate a future that somehow includes and transcends the past.
ReplyDeleteI can say my point of view on the whole Paul D vs. Beloved debate has definitely changed by the end of the book. Before the final scenes, I saw Paul D as a symbol of Sethe's past because of, well, their past relations. I guess this in turn made me label Beloved as representing the future. While it is now clear that she only proved to be detrimental to Sethe's health, she was frankly quite promising when she first arrived. She represented Sethe's past, but also an unfinished past. This could be seen as a sort of "take 2" at the whole raising a child thing. Because Sethe couldn't raise her 20 years ago, now seemed like as good a time as any to pick up where they had left off. Additionally, a difference I noticed between Paul D and Beloved was that Paul D was forcing the rekindling of their relationship, whereas Beloved was just presented as a helpless child figure in need of a mentor/mother. In the end, however, I was surprised to find out that my hypotheses had been reversed. I feel like the only person that prospered from the situation was Denver, but I'm glad that Beloved is out of Sethe's life for good.
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