"Paul D never worried about his little tobacco tin any-more. It was rusted shut...
...he didn't hear the whisper that the flakes of rust made either as they fell away from the seams of his tobacco tin. So when the lid gave he didn't know it. What he knew was that when he reached the inside part he was saying, 'Red heart. Red heart," over and over again
(Beloved, 137-138).
In the story beloved, I studied the psychoanalytical lens. Overall, the character’s mentality changed exponentially. One scene in the book that I studied immensely is the section where Paul D is sleeping in the cold room and Beloved enters the room and wants to have relations with him. During this, instead of thinking about what was happening, his “tobacco tin heart” broke open and he started saying “Red Heart” and memories of being a slave came back to him. In this scene, Paul D calls his heart a “tobacco tin” that was “rusted shut”. He calls it this because a tobacco tin is cold and hard on the inside. Saying that it is rusted shut is saying that he is suppressing all his memories of the past, and closing off anyone in the present from being able to get close to him.
Throughout this scene, Paul D goes through a transformation. In this scene, Paul D had a drastic change in character. It shows his closing himself off from his memories through this passage, "Paul D never worried about his little tobacco tin any-more. It was rusted shut" (Beloved, 137). Slowly throughout the scene, the tobacco tin heart's rust "falls off" and lets the lid open. There is a lot of symbolism in the tobacco tin being that when it breaks open during this scene, he finds himself repeating the words “red heart” (Beloved, 138). When saying red heart, he is involuntarily opening up his heart again to the outside world. Red is a metaphor for many different things such as love, pain, and death. In this scene it means all three, seeing as it opens his heart to the death and pain from sweet home, but it also opens up his mind to finally forgive Sethe in the end. Throughout the beginning, he is having nightmares about his past and is suppressing them, such as the scene where Paul D is escaping from the trench in sweet home. After this encounter with beloved, Paul D has more flashbacks of sweet home, and starts to put the past behind him to look to the future.
One quote that wasn’t from the book that I found stuck to the theme of the story is one by Buddha; “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of future, concentrate the mind on the present moment” (Buddha, BrainyQuote). This quote seems to be very prominent throughout the story, throughout the book, Paul D and Sethe are worrying about the past and the problems that could happen in the future, it is evident that this is one of the main downfalls of both of these characters. In Pauly D, it is shown through his rusted shut tobacco tin heart, and in Sethe it is through her suppressed memories of her daughter beloved and Sweet Home.
Citations:
Sources:
“Buddha Quotes.” Brainy Quote. Brainy Quote. N.A. 2015. Web. Oct. 27, 2015
Photos:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/110775617/vintage-union-leader-smoking-tobacco-tin
Photos:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/110775617/vintage-union-leader-smoking-tobacco-tin
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