In Toni Morrison’s ​Beloved,​ it is through the usage of vivid symbolism and an

attentive selection of detail that Morrison not only characterizes Paul D as the victim of
the vengent ghost of Sethe’s murdered daughter, but an overall victim to himself, his
past, and his enduring resistance to emotion or expression, which is a manifestation of
Morrison’s warning against the perpetual and continuous repression of memory, or
more specifically, the repression of past trauma.
Through the utilization of symbolism in characterizing Paul D, Morrison
emphasizes the importance of being able to bring past trauma to one’s emotional
surface rather than internalizing it, in order to properly process and eventually grow from
it, as the effects of a failure to address this are worse for both the individual and society.
The first instance in which Morrison conveys this purpose is when Paul D is first
expressing the state of his heart, or rather lack thereof, as he describes the memories of
and feelings towards his brothers, Sethe, Mister, and his experiences as a slave being
forever sealed into the rusted tobacco tin lodged in place of his heart(133). Also,
Morrison expresses that “by the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it
open”(133). This symbol of the tobacco tin, used multiple times throughout the novel, is
representative of Paul D’s evolution of character through the multitudes of trauma he’d
endured in his lifetime. A heart is usually connotative of love, or more specifically,
emotion, and Paul D’s absence of one is comparable to being devoid of such emotion.
The action of being ‘lodged’ implies a sense of forcefulness being applied, meaning this
desensitivity and emotional diffidence was not derived from a simple choice but an
inevitable result of being constantly physically and mentally degraded by another party,
which is yet another way white people have dominion over black people. The tin can’s
being rusted shut, as expressed in earlier chapters, implies not only that Paul D is
closed off to expressing his feelings, he never will open up, relating back to Morrison’s
repeated idea of the repression of memory throughout ​Beloved​.
Also, it is through Morrison’s careful selection of detail in Beloved’s seduction of
Paul D that Paul D is characterized, and these scenes are overall used to communicate
the issue that is the unhealthy subduing of emotions. Although every character in this
book has partook in a considerably horrendous wrongdoing, like the protagonist having
murdered her child, Paul D has been the exception to this rule as he had not acted very
immorally before this moment in the book, where Beloved greets him at the rocker and
proceeds to seduce him(134). At this moment, Beloved, who not only is the spiritual
manifestation of Sethe’s murdered and vengeful child, but the existing consequence of
Sethe’s failure to recognize her past and her trauma, has finally breached Paul D’s
seemingly sound moral track record. This conveys Morrison’s warning against the
repression of such trauma as these consequences not only dangerously affect the
individual, but the individual’s surrounding loved ones, as it was this exhibition of
Sethe’s past and misconduct that tarnished the identity of another person.