Slavery has taken away Paul D.’s ability to love people; his story uses the metaphor of a rust-covered tobacco tin lodged inside of his heart to further explain why he cannot love anyone fully. Paul D says that it’s best for a former slave to “…love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack…you’d have a little room for the next one” ( Morrison 54). Slavery has taken away Paul D.’s ability to trust and love people to the fullest extent by giving him traumatic memories to carry around for the rest of his life: “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory…one
