The Perpetuating Confusion and Paul D's Haunted Past

An interesting aspect of this passage form Beloved is the change in narration styles throughout four chapters.  While I thought the beginning of this novel was confusing, I was only further bewildered upon reading these chapters.  The first chapter is narrated by Sethe herself, as can be seen when she starts by saying, "Beloved, she my daughter".  The next is narrated by Denver, seen when she says, "Beloved is my sister".  The third chapter is narrated by Beloved herself, beginning by saying, "I am Beloved and she is mine".  The fourth chapter, however, while it begins the same way as the chapter narrated by Beloved, changes into a sort of stream of consciousness between Sethe, Denver, and Beloved interchangeably.  This frequent and often unnoticeable change in narrators made these chapters extremely confusing for me to read as I was constantly reminding myself of who was talking.  Yet, while the style is confusing, I believe it is used to further emphasize the themes of the story.  We talked in class about the significance of circles as symbols of perpetuating cycles, and I see this change in narrating style as a symbol of the perpetuation as well.  The change from the point of views shows the reader the feelings of not just the third person narrator, but Sethe, Denver, and Beloved as well.  Therefore, by using these different, albeit confusing, narrating styles, the reader is given a more in depth look at the story itself while maintaining focus on the themes of the novel.

A second interesting aspect of this passage is the chapter in which Paul D is sitting on the steps of the church remembering his days as a slave.  I found the chapter to be very powerful, not only because of the memories unearthed by Paul D, but mainly because of the pain they cause him simply to remember them.  Paul D, previously described as stoic yet with a "tobacco tin" rusted shut as a heart, is now described as "blown open, spilled contents that floated freely and made him their play and prey".  The character of Paul D changes from being a fairly resilient man to a very vulnerable one in this scene.  His shaky emotional state is only further augmented by his drinking, no doubt used to numb the pain inflicted by his haunting memories of his slavery.  When he talks about the price people paid for him, we find out in this scene that Paul D has a very pessimistic view about slavery.  Paul D refers to African Americans as, "property that reproduced itself without cost".  While this is an extremely cynical way of looking at it, it is essentially true for that time period and somewhat surprising that Paul D would recognize that about himself.  Therefore, while Paul D is struggling to deal with his haunted past and resorts to alcohol to comfort himself, it is somewhat sobering to know that he is finally beginning to come to terms with his enslavement.