Beloved Blog 2 (favorite character analysis)

Paul D is one of the most memorable men to be depicted in literature in my eyes. He wants to love big, but is constrained by slavery and its traumatizing effects. Although he is filled with passion and emotion, he has difficulty expressing his true feelings. Throughout his life, Paul D endures loss after loss of loved ones. He never even knows his parents. He longs for Sethe to be his wife during their days of slavery, but looses her to Halle. Then he watches as all of his friends perish after their escape from the plantation.

Throughout the book, Paul D struggles with the problem of defining his manhood. As a slave, he was treated as property that could be bought and sold at will, much live livestock. Mr. Garner, however, told him that he was a man, giving him hope. As a result, he believed that he would be able to protect and provide for loved ones and to have self-determination. Then Schoolteacher arrived to be his slaveholder and stripped Paul D of all human dignity. When he escapes from Sweet Home, he has no idea how to be a man and wanders aimlessly for years.

Paul D finds models in slave men who found ways to express themselves in ways that the slave owners could not take away. He cherishes the lessons he learned from Sixo, who was fortunate enough to retain the healing rituals of his African culture, who never accepted the slave holder's truth as reality, who refused to speak even the slave holder's language, and who loved a woman who was a friend of his mind. One of his strongest memories is the picture of Sixo laughing in the faces of his captors as they burned him to death. Paul D also admires Halle, who worked his heart out to free his mother.

Through eighteen years of wandering, Paul D never finds himself or anyone to truly love. Seeking to come to terms with his past, he arrives unannounced at 124 Bluestone, seeking Sethe. He wins her heart by exorcising the infant ghost. As a result, she asks him to stay with her permanently. When Paul D learns about Sethe murdering her daughter, he cannot accept the truth. After Sethe confirms what she has done and tries to explain why, Paul D chooses to leave her. His decision makes him miserable, and he drinks away the pain. In the end, he hears about Sethe's declining health and returns to help her. At the end of the novel, he convinces her that she is her own best thing. By loving and accepting her, he also heals himself.