Paul D Character Analysis in Beloved

Paul D was a slave at Sweet Home along with Halle, Sixo, and two other Pauls (Paul A and Paul F). He suffered greatly under Schoolteacher and also as a prisoner on a chain gang in Georgia. After the Civil War, Paul D spent years wandering around, unable to feel at home anywhere. This changes when he arrives at 124 and tries to settle down with Sethe, but he is forced out of the household by Beloved. He tries to repress his painful memories by keeping them in what he calls the tobacco tin where his heart once was, but Sethe and Beloved force him to confront his troubled past. Ultimately, he returns to care for Sethe, even after she seems to have lost her mind.

Paul D Quotes in Beloved

The Beloved quotes below are all either spoken by Paul D or refer to Paul D. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“How come everybody run off from Sweet Home can’t stop talking about it? Look like if it was so sweet you would have stayed.”
[...]
Paul D laughed. “True, true. [Denver’s] right, Sethe. It wasn’t sweet and it sure wasn’t home.” He shook his head.
“But it’s where we were,” said Sethe. “All together. Comes back whether we want it to or not.”

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker), (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 16

Explanation and Analysis:

Mister, he looked so...free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher. ...Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was. Even if you cooked him you’d be cooking a rooster named Mister. But wasn’t no way I’d ever be Paul D again, living or dead.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 86

Explanation and Analysis:

They chain-danced over the fields... They sang it out and beat it up, garbling the words so they could not be understood; tricking the words so their syllables yielded up other meanings.

Related Characters:

Page Number and Citation: 128

Explanation and Analysis:

The chain that held them would save all or none, and Hi Man was the Delivery. They talked through that chain like Sam Morse and, Great God, they all came up. Like the unshriven dead, zombies on the loose, holding the chains in their hands, they trusted the rain and the dark, yes, but mostly Hi Man and each other.

Related Characters:

Page Number and Citation: 130

Explanation and Analysis:

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, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open.

Related Characters: , ,

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 133

Explanation and Analysis:

For years Paul D believed schoolteacher broke into children what Garner had raised into men. And it was that that made them run off. Now, plagued by the contents of his tobacco tin, he wondered how much difference there really was between before schoolteacher and after.

Related Characters: ,

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 260

Explanation and Analysis:

Remembering his own price, down to the cent, that schoolteacher was able to get for him, [Paul D] wondered what Sethe’s would have been. What had Baby Suggs’ been? How much did Halle owe, still, besides his labor? What did Mrs. Garner get for Paul F? More than nine hundred dollars? How much more? Ten dollars? Twenty?

Related Characters: , ,

Page Number and Citation: 269

Explanation and Analysis:

Yet [Denver] knew Sethe’s greatest fear was...that Beloved might leave.... Leave before Sethe could make her realize that far worse than [death]...was what Baby Suggs died of, what Ella knew, what Stamp saw and what made Paul D tremble. That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn’t like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up.

Related Characters: , , , , , ,

Page Number and Citation: 295

Explanation and Analysis:

Paul D Character Timeline in Beloved

The timeline below shows where the character Paul D appears in Beloved. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Storytelling, Memory, and the Past Theme Icon

Sethe goes outside and is surprised to find Paul D, an ex-slave who also worked on Sweet Home, sitting on her porch. He asks... (full context)

Upon entering the house, Paul D feels some kind of presence and asks, “What kind of evil you got in... (full context)

Sethe tells Paul D that the sad presence he feels in the house is from her daughter. She... (full context)

Denver meets Paul D and is shy around him, since she is not used to friendly acquaintances or... (full context)

As Sethe and Denver start to prepare dinner, Denver makes a rude remark to Paul D and then begins to cry. She says that she can’t live any longer in... (full context)

Sethe makes reference to having a tree on her back. Paul D asks her what she means and she explains: on Sweet Home, when she was... (full context)

Alone in the kitchen with Paul D, Sethe puts biscuits into the oven. Paul D comes up behind her and embraces... (full context)

...house settles down, Denver takes the biscuits onto the porch and eats, while Sethe and Paul D go upstairs. Alone, she thinks of her brothers and remembers her young childhood with... (full context)

Sethe and Paul go upstairs and enter her bedroom. After brief sex, they are too shy to talk... (full context)

Paul D thinks of how he had fantasized about Sethe on Sweet Home and how the... (full context)

Sethe and Paul D each separately remember when Sethe and Halle had sex out in the cornfield on... (full context)

Paul D has moved into 124, disturbing the house’s arrangement that Denver had grown used to.... (full context)

...Sethe remembers is the pink from part of her dead child’s tombstone. But now that Paul D has moved in, Sethe is suddenly aware of how colorless the house is. (full context)

Paul D sings as he mends things around the house, but none of the songs he... (full context)

Paul D tells Sethe that he can look for work around 124 and she tells him... (full context)

At dinner one night, Denver asks Paul D how long he’s going to “hang around”, which upsets Sethe. Paul asks if he... (full context)

Paul D tells Sethe that he will stay at 124 and help her, but she has... (full context)

...who attend. Denver buys candy and lemonade and begins to warm to the idea of Paul D living with her and Sethe. As they walk home from the carnival, their shadows... (full context)

...“new skin”. She sits down on a stump outside of 124, where Sethe, Denver, and Paul D find her upon returning from the carnival. Immediately upon seeing the woman, Sethe feels... (full context)

...strange woman eats nothing but drinks lots of water. She says her name is Beloved. Paul D decides not to ask her who she is or where she’s from, thinking of... (full context)

Sethe and Paul D think Beloved is sick with cholera, but Denver defiantly says that she isn’t. For... (full context)

...know where she came from. Sethe guesses that her fever robbed her of her memory. Paul D is suspicious of the mysterious woman and asks Sethe if she plans to continue... (full context)

...meet her on her way back from work at night. Time passes with Sethe, Denver, Paul D, and Beloved all living at 124. (full context)

Paul D feels uneasy around Beloved and is still suspicious of her, since he still does... (full context)

Paul D still feels suspicious of Beloved, even though he has known many “Negroes so stunned,... (full context)

Just as Paul D thinks of trying to get rid of Beloved, Beloved chokes on a raisin and... (full context)

As Sethe and Paul D argue, the conversation shifts to Halle. Paul D tells her that Halle actually saw... (full context)

...She is upset that Halle saw the whole thing and didn’t try to stop it. Paul D says that the event “broke” Halle. The last time Paul D saw him, he... (full context)

Sethe offers to listen if Paul D should want to talk about having the bit in his mouth. Paul D says... (full context)

Paul D doesn’t tell Sethe anything more about the experience of having the bit. He keeps... (full context)

Upon returning to 124, Sethe finds Paul D bathing. Realizing how much she wants him in her life, she embraces him. Beloved... (full context)

Paul D recalls his time working on a chain gang in Georgia: he is chained together... (full context)

...rain continues, the ground floods and dirt turns to mud. Someone yanks the chain and Paul D falls to the ground. Somehow, all the prisoners understand. They dive through the mud... (full context)

The Cherokee bring out axes and cut the prisoners’ chains. The slaves gradually leave, until Paul D is the last one left. He goes north and doesn’t stop until he gets... (full context)

Beloved gradually forces Paul D out of 124. He feels restless and uncomfortable everywhere, and doesn’t know how to... (full context)

One evening, Paul D switches to Baby Suggs’ old room. Then, he moves to the storeroom. He recognizes... (full context)

Beloved enters the cold house one night and asks Paul D to sleep with her. He refuses but she eventually seduces him. As she approaches... (full context)

Paul D thinks about his time at Sweet Home. Mr. Garner let his slaves correct him,... (full context)

Paul D resolves to tell Sethe about what’s been happening and goes to meet her at... (full context)

Sethe and Paul D walk back to 124. It begins to snow and they start to run, Paul... (full context)

One night, Sethe finally says something about Paul D sleeping in the cold house and tells him to come upstairs at night, upsetting... (full context)

That night, after Paul D and Sethe leave the dinner table and go upstairs, Denver and Beloved talk. Denver... (full context)

Back in the present, at the slaughterhouse where Stamp Paid and Paul D both work, Stamp Paid shows Paul D a news clipping about Sethe killing her... (full context)

Stamp Paid plans to tell Paul D about the day Sethe killed her child, how the four horseman arrived and she... (full context)

When he gets back to 124, Paul D confronts Sethe about the news clipping. Sethe avoids the subject, telling him about her... (full context)

Sethe tells Paul D about her escape from Sweet Home, and how she did it by herself, without... (full context)

Finally, Sethe tells Paul D that she stopped Schoolteacher from taking her children, saying, “I took and put my... (full context)

Stamp Paid approaches 124, feeling bad that he has caused Paul D to leave the house. He realizes that the last time he went to 124... (full context)

Meanwhile, Sethe is trying to move on without Paul D, who she feels has abandoned her like all the other townspeople. Beloved finds a... (full context)

...thinks that the hand-holding shadows she saw on the day of the carnival were not Paul D, Denver, and her, but rather Beloved, Denver, and her. She thinks that Paul D... (full context)

...He tells Ella that there is a strange woman at 124 and decides to ask Paul D about it. He learns that Paul D is sleeping in the cellar of the... (full context)

Paul D, Sixo, and Sixo’s Thirty-Mile Woman try to escape Sweet Home, but are caught. The... (full context)

Paul D is brought back to Sweet Home in chains, where he sees Sethe. Sethe got... (full context)

Stamp Paid arrives at the Church and meets with Paul D, who is attempting to drink away his sorrows. He apologizes for Paul D having... (full context)

Stamp Paid says he wants to make up for showing Paul D the news clipping about Sethe. He then tells Paul D about how he changed... (full context)

Stamp Paid tells Paul D that he was at 124 on the day Sethe killed her child. He tells... (full context)

Paul D and Stamp Paid discuss the day when the singing women came to the house... (full context)

Paul D asks Denver if Beloved was her sister. Denver says that she thinks so, but... (full context)

Paul D thinks about his past, and the various unsuccessful escapes he has attempted throughout his... (full context)

Paul D goes to 124. He senses that Beloved is truly gone. He enters the house... (full context)

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Paul D Character Analysis

Paul D Quotes in Beloved

Paul D Character Timeline in Beloved

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