Paul D's Reckoning with Manhood

Traces how Paul D's sense of being a man is built by Garner, broken by schoolteacher, buried in Alfred, and finally rebuilt in relation to Sethe.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Making of a Man

The Making of a Man Garner's Gift Mr. Garner's special slavery lets his Negroes be men. He lets them carry guns, learn to read, correct him, and choose their own work. Paul D grows up believing he is a man because a white man named him so. The Brotherhood of Sweet Home Paul D has his brothers, Paul A and Paul F, and his friends Halle and Sixo. The farm is a cradle, and manhood seems as natural as breathing under the pretty sycamore trees. The Unsure Foundation Even then Paul D wonders whether Garner was naming what he saw or creating what did not exist. The doubt grows when schoolteacher arrives and takes away the guns.

The Bit and the Rooster

The Bit and the Rooster The Iron in the Mouth Schoolteacher's men put a three-spoke collar on Paul D and a bit in his mouth. The taste of iron and the helplessness of the tongue become the defining memory of his dehumanization. Mister the Rooster On the road, Paul D sees Mister, the rooster he raised from a sickly chick, standing on a tub, free and proud. The rooster is more of a man than Paul D is now: "Something less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub." The Death of the Red Heart Paul D feels his heart close and rust shut. He puts everything—Halle, Sixo, schoolteacher, Mister, the bit—into a tobacco tin in his chest, vowing never to open it.

The Tin Man of Alfred

The Tin Man of Alfred The box, the chain, and the sledge hammer grind away all that is left of Paul D's inner life. He learns to love small: grass blades, salamanders, a tree too young to call a sapling. The System of Surviving Paul D discovers that any big love would split him open in Alfred, Georgia. So he packs everything into the rusted tobacco tin and operates only on the part of his head that helps him walk, eat, sleep, and sing. The Question of Selfhood The chain gang is where Paul D's manhood dies its public death. When he escapes, he is not a man but a ghost, moving north without a plan, following tree flowers because the Cherokee told him to.

The Rag Doll at 124

The Rag Doll at 124 A Whole Woman With Sethe, Paul D begins to feel like himself again. He beats the ghost, makes love, attends the carnival, and talks about the future. He stops boarding only his own narrow present. The Spell of Beloved Beloved's presence moves him against his will. He is forced from room to room, from the bed to the rocker to the storeroom to the cold house, like a rag doll. He cannot command his feet, and the shame is worse than the slavery. A Man Unmade Beloved makes him realize that his manhood, even after Alfred, is fragile enough to be taken by a girl. The assurance he had rebuilt with Sethe collapses into the old question: was schoolteacher right?

The Man Who Rubs Feet

The Man Who Rubs Feet Choosing Tomorrow Paul D returns to 124 after Beloved has gone, knowing what Sethe did and accepting it. He tells her they have more yesterday than anybody and need some kind of tomorrow. His love is no longer conditional on her innocence. The New Manhood He asks her permission to rub her feet, and in that simple request he restores both her dignity and his own. He can be tender without being weak; he can stay without being trapped. The Friend of Her Mind He remembers Sixo's words about the Thirty-Mile Woman and recognizes Sethe as a friend of his mind. His manhood is no longer a status given by a Garner or stolen by a schoolteacher, but a choice he makes in relationship.

Paul D's twenty years at Sweet Home under Garner

during Paul D's transport south after the escape attempt

during the eighty-six days in the chain gang

the months Paul D lives with Sethe, before the clipping

the final scene with Sethe in Baby Suggs's bed