Summary: Chapter 11
At 124 Bluestone Road,
Paul D feels inexplicably restless and uncomfortable in every room.
Eventually, he is only able to sleep outside the house. He realizes
that Beloved is moving him around the house like a rag doll. One
night, Beloved comes to Paul D in the cold house, where he now sleeps,
and says, “I want you to touch me on the inside part. . . . And
you have to call me my name.” Paul D tries to resist her strange power,
but he has sex with her, and the tin tobacco box breaks open. He repeats
the phrase “red heart” over and over.
Analysis: Chapters 9–11
Chapter 9 contrasts two philosophies of dealing with pain.
One is represented by Baby Suggs; Paul D and Ella espouse the other. Through
her preaching, Baby Suggs hoped to help her fellow former slaves
reclaim themselves, to “love their mouths” and express their feelings.
While still in bondage, love was an emotional liability, but outside
of slavery a person can have more trust that the object of his love
will not be taken away. Yet, even when one is no longer a slave, one
must deal with a certain amount of loss. Having already known more
loss than they feel they can bear, Paul D and Ella have decided they
would forego all real love for the rest of their lives rather than feel
any more pain. When Baby Suggs tells her listeners to love their hearts most
of all, she responds to Paul D’s “tin heart” philosophy. Baby Suggs’s
message is that a sacrifice such as Paul D’s is not worth undertaking,
because love is part of being human, and humanity should not be
sacrificed for the sake of emotional survival. It is questionable
whether life without love constitutes “survival” at all.
Sethe’s reaction to the news of Halle’s fate reveals her
strategy for coping with pain and love. She wavers and is tempted
to suppress her feelings as Paul D does. Ultimately, though, she
supports Baby Suggs’s wise words. Having loved Halle so deeply,
the news of his psychological breakdown causes Sethe great pain.
Yet facing his pain and her own allows her to heal and move on.
Instead of moving to a new, unhaunted house, Sethe had stayed at 124 in
the hope that her husband would join her someday. As she begins
to reexamine the past, Sethe contemplates constructing a new family
and life with Paul D. Her decision to stay with him suggests that
she is ready to confront the other painful accounts that Paul D
still has yet to tell her, and to tell her own stories as well.
She has taken another step toward reclaiming her identity and healing
her spirit.
Similarly, the sexual encounter between Beloved and Paul
D causes Paul D to act against his philosophy, which suggests that
it is weak in relation to that of Baby Suggs. Paul D’s engagement
with Beloved may be representative of the intense encounter with
his past that he is undertaking in the novel. Somehow, the encounter
loosens the lid of Paul D’s “tobacco tin” heart: his pulsating chant,
“red heart, red heart,” reflects the sudden overflow of passion
he feels as his tin box bursts and his past pours out.
The scene between Beloved and Paul D raises many questions. Beloved’s
sexuality complicates the characters’ (and the reader’s) perception
of her as the embodiment of the dead baby’s spirit. Her interaction
with Paul D seems to prove her power over him, but it also manifests
a more vulnerable, plaintive, childlike aspect of her nature. Her
insistence that Paul D call her by her name communicates her insecurity
about who she is as well as her neediness. If Beloved is representative
of history or the past, her actions seem to suggest that although
the past has power over us, it is also in a position of dependency.
If we do not care for it, acknowledge it, call it by name, it may
fade and weaken, but it may also resort to a state of spiteful vengeance,
keeping us captive until we bow to its demands.
