Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a man owns things, defies authority, makes decisions, and remains loyal to his wife. Manhood is not just one set of male identities; rather, they are a collection of diverse, intertwined, and sometimes contradictory social practices and experiences (Ammann and Staudacher 759). Paul D is now free from an enslaved person, and during his time in slavery, he struggled with his strengths and inadequacies as a man. As a means of controlling Paul D’s mind, his former enslaver, Mr. Garner, convinced him that during his years of slavery, he was a real man; by questioning his masculinity, he resolved the conflict with Sethe, who killed their children. Even though there is more interest, not enough research has been done on men who live in the countryside to create and negotiate their masculinities in intimate relationships (Dery 9671). Paul D returns to Sethe, takes responsibility, and finally discovers his manhood after realizing how much he needs and loves her. By doing so, he resolved the conflict he had about his masculinity.
Paul D has always considered himself a man because of his master, Mr. Garner. In reality, however, he is male and has yet to claim his masculinity. Garner bragged about the men he bought and enslaved, so his claim that all of them were “men” and not “niggers” is ridiculous. Garner says to farmers, “Now at Sweet Home, my niggers are men every one of them. Bought them that away, raised them that away. Men everyone” (Morrison and Evaristo 12). As all other men believe that men “have things” and Garner’s “men” has nothing, he claims that other farmers have boys and he has men. By pretending to be men, the mind of Garner controlled his men in slavery, but they left Garner unexpectedly. The enslaved people are unlikely to resist or think of escaping because they are grateful to their masters for treating them as “men.” Garner told the farmer that niggers are men, and the farmer thought he was crazy because he knew niggers were niggers. The farmer says to Garner, “Beg to differ, Garner. I am not nigger men…I would not have no nigger men round my wife” (Morrison and Evaristo 12). The farmer insisted that he was not a nigger because his wife would not have any nigger men around her. Garner often returns home injured as disagreements escalate into fights with other farmers. In addition, Mr. Garner explains to the farmers why he considers his niggers to be men. Paul D argues that the white man said he was a man after hearing all this from Mr. Garner. Paul D starts questioning himself and says, “Was that it? Is that where the manhood lay? In the naming done by a white man who was supposed to know? In their relationship with Garner was true metal: they were believed and trusted, but most of all listened to” (Morrison and Evaristo 147). For Paul D and the rest of Sweet Home men to experience their masculinity under Mr. Garner, he made them believe that they were the same men that everyone else thought they were. Because black people easily believe what white people say, Paul D begins questioning whether he is a man and whether Mr. Garner is correct. Paul D says, “The last of the Sweet Home men, so named and called by one who would know, believed it. The other 4 believed it too, once, but they were long gone…only 5 were men” (Morrison and Evaristo 147). Garner believed that only his slaves were “men.” Mr. Garner and their relationship with him convinced Paul D that they were men because Garner always listened to them and let them do whatever they wanted. The real irony is their relationship with Garner: they are heard, trusted, and believed. He realizes he is not a man yet but does not know what that means. Paul D eventually concluded that what Mr. Garner said was wrong, but he accepted it since Garner was his master and a white man.
Paul D realizes that the man who made Sethe kill her child, the Schoolteacher, was always right about being a man, and Paul D was far from it. Paul D knows Garner refers to him and his slaves as the only men. In Paul D’s life, he has been told what to do, but he never refused; instead, he will do what they tell him. According to the story, the Schoolteacher is the one who taught them that they were just Sweet Home men at Sweet Home. “And it was he, that man, who had walked from Georgia to Delaware, who could not go or stay put where he wanted to in shame,” says the book (Morrison and Evaristo 148). Paul D is a shame to humanity because he had to walk from “Georgia to Delaware” to find a place to live. One step away from the place are human invaders, and true men live there; if the Schoolteacher is right, it makes sense how he turned into a ragdoll. These men are seen as men in Sweet Home, while outside there, they are known only as “niggers” and are seen as trespassers. Even when Paul D did not want to have sex with Beloved, he had a relationship with Beloved’s mother, Sethe. He never said no to Beloved, a girl young enough to be his daughter. While he could have refused and told Sethe about it like a real man, he claimed there was nothing he could do about it. Men generally know where they want to go, compared to Paul D, who doesn’t know where he wants to stay.
Paul D finally returned to Sethe, taking the first steps to regain his manhood. At first, he left her after revealing that she had killed her children to prevent him from being enslaved. He finally realizes that by coming back and taking responsibility, and wanting to make things right, Sethe helped him become a man. “Deciding how his going would be, how to make it an exit, not an escape,” says the narrator (Morrison and Evaristo 194). Paul D wants to leave and forget Sethe’s past. He doesn’t want to be seen as a runaway man, which is not manhood and something Paul D is used to doing because of his traumatic experiences in slavery. The narrator mentions, “When he looks at himself through Garner’s eyes, he sees one thing. Through Sixo’s, another. One makes him feel righteous. One makes him feel ashamed” (Morrison and Evaristo 315). When Paul D saw himself with Garner and Sixo, he got two very different feelings, as if he was taking care of himself. One, he feels embarrassed, and because Sixo, one of the members of Sweet Home, is more masculine than Paul D, he feels “shame” through Sixo’s eyes. It made him jealous, and Garner made him feel “just” because he thought Paul D was the man from Sweet Home. Paul D was jealous of Sixo because he had a woman 30 miles away who was Sixo’s girlfriend and was always open about how he felt about the relationship. However, even after his death, Sixo was a man, and the instance provoked Paul D’s mind to reconcile with Sethe. Paul D understands that he has to open up in his relationship with Sethe, so he chooses to return to Sethe at the age of 124 to maintain his manhood by dealing with her concerns and solving their problems. The narrator and Paul D explain, “…did not have to feel the shame of being collared like a beast. Only this woman, Sethe could have left him his manhood like that… your best thing, Sethe. You are” (Morrison and Evaristo 322). Because Paul D had never been in a relationship with a woman before and had no family in his past, only Sethe made him feel like a man. While living with Sethe, he had another important experience that he had never had before. Paul D declared Sethe “the best thing” because he was just a “man” in terms of gender, and he could not claim his manhood without her. After years, Paul D finally found his manhood, and it made him feel good.
In conclusion, Tony Morrison and Bernardine Evaristo’s Beloved tells the story of Paul D, a formerly enslaved man, and how he became a man. In Sweet Home of Mr. Garner, Paul D is convinced he is a real man, but he is only a man. When he left Sweet Home, the whites called him a trespasser, like other enslaved blacks (Morrison and Evaristo 148). It took Paul D a long time to realize who he was because of everything in his life. Morrison used Paul D as an example of masculinity because he struggled with manhood his whole life and concluded that Sethe was the only person that made him feel like a real man.
Works Cited
Ammann, Carole, and Sandra Staudacher. “Masculinities in Africa beyond Crisis: Complexity, Fluidity, and Intersectionality.”Gender, Place & Culture, vol. 28, no. 6, 2020, pp. 759–768. Web.
Dery, Isaac. “Give Her a Slap or Two. She Might Change”. Negotiating Masculinities through Intimate Partner Violence among Rural Ghanaian Men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 36, (19-20), 2019, pp. 9670–9690. Web.
Morrison, Toni, and Bernardine Evaristo. Beloved. Vintage Classics, 2022.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.