Toni Morrison said that “The past is more infinite than the future… It's avoiding it, deceiving ourselves about it that paralyzed growth. This quote talks about how thinking about the past, pretending things could be different are what causes someone to never escape their own guilt about what they've done. This sentiment is particularly evident in Beloved, it is one of its main themes in the book. Both the characters of Sethe and Paul D had lives filled with suffering and hardship. In order to deal with this they both created to diametrically opposed methods of coping. Sethe begins to live in the past, thinking only about what could have been, and Paul D tries to avoid the past, going so far as to shut his memories and feelings inside of his
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It progresses to the point where his heart is described to be as a tobacco tin with a rusted lid. Morrison conveys that “Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. It’s lid rusted shut.” (72-73) This quote talks of how Paul D has tried to shut out the past so thoroughly that it has become impossible to reopen. This is the coping method that Paul D created in order to deal with the reality of his life, to shut his memories and emotions from the past away. Throughout the novel colors are very important symbols, especially the color red. Red is the one color that Baby Suggs never made it to pondering, and is emblematic of the pain of the past. It is also a part in the pain of Sethe after killing Beloved. This reinforces the idea of the pain of the past for Paul D. Moreover a tobacco tin is a common object that Paul D would have know about, but never used, it symbolizes his desire to have a different past. To have been raised using a tobacco tin, and not stuck in his life as a slave. Being rusted in a literal sense, means that given enough water, air and time, it would have corroded a layer of rust and be unable to open. In a figurative sense, it denotes that Paul D has become unable to reopen the past without it all coming out, unless he breaks into the tobacco tin, then he will never deal with
It progresses to the point where his heart is described to be as a tobacco tin with a rusted lid. Morrison conveys that “Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from. He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. It’s lid rusted shut.” (72-73) This quote talks of how Paul D has tried to shut out the past so thoroughly that it has become impossible to reopen. This is the coping method that Paul D created in order to deal with the reality of his life, to shut his memories and emotions from the past away. Throughout the novel colors are very important symbols, especially the color red. Red is the one color that Baby Suggs never made it to pondering, and is emblematic of the pain of the past. It is also a part in the pain of Sethe after killing Beloved. This reinforces the idea of the pain of the past for Paul D. Moreover a tobacco tin is a common object that Paul D would have know about, but never used, it symbolizes his desire to have a different past. To have been raised using a tobacco tin, and not stuck in his life as a slave. Being rusted in a literal sense, means that given enough water, air and time, it would have corroded a layer of rust and be unable to open. In a figurative sense, it denotes that Paul D has become unable to reopen the past without it all coming out, unless he breaks into the tobacco tin, then he will never deal with