The Use of Metal as Symbol in Beloved
I chose to focus this optional journal on metal, one of the motifs Morrison uses throughout the text of Beloved. Morrison uses this common substance, metal, to illustrate her themes involving slavery and emotional repression. If you think about metal and the images that it can bring to mind, you begin to see Morrison’s intent. Metal is a basic element with an abundance of characteristics that add to the emotional might of its symbolism. Metal can restrain and stifle; it is at once strong and unbreakable; its very color evokes winter themes—dreary, chilly, gray, and dark. Morrison wants readers to subtly evoke these images each time they read a word or sentence that includes some form of metal. Morrison takes particular care in surrounding the character of Paul D with this form of imagery.Through Morrison, we learn that Paul D’s heart is a tobacco tin. Morrison details the "lid rusted shut" showing the bottling up of Paul Ds emotions. "By the time he got to 124 nothing could pry it open. " Morrison uses tin to describe Paul D’s heart which has become a sort of metal vault, whe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Paul Ds, Beloved Morrison, Sixo Mister, Georgia Morrison, Sethe Mister, , Paul Red, paul ds, red heart, Georgia Sixo, paul ds heart, red heart red, ds heart, heart red heart, heart red, tobacco tin, imagery morrison, didn't hear, metal imagery, hand-forged chain, readers subtly,
Approximate Word count = 739
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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