Beloved  is a story about a former slave, Sethe, living with where daughter, Denver, in a house that is occupied by a ghost that is believed to be the soul of Setheâs dead daughter, Beloved. When a man named Paul D comes along, a series of events take place and changes the dynamics of the family at 124. Paul D escaping from the Georgia chain gang played a huge part in the novel. Paul D plays a significant role in the lives of Sethe and Denver. If he hadnât escaped, some of the major events of the story wouldnât have happened.
Thereâs a lot of evidence that Paul D affected people’s lives through escaping, but I believe Paul D himself changed entirely after his escape and him being at 124. âBut this was not a normal woman in a normal house. As soon as he had stepped through the red light he knew that, compared to 124, the rest of the world was bald. After Alfred he had shut down a generous portion of his head, operating on the part that helped him walk, eat, sleep, sing. If he could do those things–with a little work and a little sex thrown in–he asked for no more, for more required him to dwell on Halle’s face and Sixo laughing. To recall trembling in a box built into the ground. Grateful for the daylight spent doing mule work in a quarry because he did not tremble when he had a hammer in his hands. The box had done what Sweet Home had not, what working like an ass and living like a dog had not: drove him crazy so he would not lose his mind.â Â During his time in slavery, he had a âwalk, eat, sleep, singâ mentality. The state that he was in seemed robotic and nonhuman. Paul D leaving the plantation and reuniting with Sethe gave him a reason to live life and to better the lives close to him, which he did.
Before Paul D came, Sethe and Denver never had a good relationship with the community. Ever since word got around that there was a ghost at 124, they kept their distance from the family. This is one of the reasons that Denver befriended the ghost. Because no one in town would talk to her. Paul D used his social skils to change the way people viewed the family. âSoothed by sugar, surrounded by a crowd of people who did not find her the main attraction, who, in fact, said, “Hey, Denver,” every now and then, pleased her enough to consider the possibility that Paul D wasn’t all that bad. In fact there was something about him– when the three of them stood together watching Midget dance–that made the stares of other Negroes kind, gentle, something Denver did not remember seeing in their faces. Several even nodded and smiled at her mother, no one, apparently, able to withstand sharing the pleasure Paul D. was having. He slapped his knees when Giant danced with Midget; when Two-Headed Man talked to himself. He bought everything Denver asked for and much she did not. He teased Sethe into tents she was reluctant to enter. Stuck pieces of candy she didn’t want between her lips. When Wild African Savage shook his bars and said wa wa, Paul D told everybody he knew him back in Roanoke. Paul D made a few acquaintances; spoke to them about what work he might find. Sethe returned the smiles she got. Denver was swaying with delight. And on the way home, although leading them now, the shadows of three people still held hands.â Paul D sort of reintroduced the community to Denver and Sethe.
In conclusion, Paul D played a significant role in the novel and the lives of Denver, Sethe and Beloved. If this one event in the book, Paul D escaping from slavery, were to changed, the dynamic of the story would change greatly.
