Who Is Paul D's Tin In Beloved

Paul D’s Tobacco Tin Can in Beloved
One’s emotional openness can differ when they have been through traumatic events. Like the main character’s in Beloved written by Toni Morrison, most of the characters all have had to go through traumatic experiences and experience emotional distress. These traumatic situations and the emotional distress cause them to bury everything deep inside and never speak of their experiences again. Throughout this novel Morrison shows the societal views and opinions about emotional distress through the symbolic meaning of Paul D’s tin can.
One way Morrison does this is through symbolism and archetypal meanings. For example, when Paul D is speaking with Sethe, “He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco

Morrison is proving to the reader how many people and experiences have caused him emotional distress. Paul D refuses to think of these people due to the fact that they are tied to horrible memories in his past. The gustatory imagery of “the taste of iron” is telling the reader what he has gone through, and he constantly would think of how he knows the “taste.” “Iron” also has a negative connotation, relating to how the slaves were restricted by “iron.” Once again Morrison refers to Paul D’s “tobacco tin” as his heart. Rather than burying away his emotional distress in his heart, it is buried in his “tobacco tin.” Morrison does this to show how heartless he feels due to his past. The societal view that previous slaves have to bury everything they’ve experienced is well known now, but not then. People of the era of slavery did not realize that the physical harm caused to the slaves would resonate with them, and if they did, they did not