Mister’s Comb and the Tobacco Tin: A Dissection of the Specter of Slavery and The Prison of Patriarchy in Beloved
Toni Morrison’s Beloved is haunted by the deep scars slavery has left on the book’s characters and the poison that still seeps through the system that continues to disenfranchise and oppress Black folks even after emancipation. One of the primary characters we follow throughout the book is Paul D, a man formerly enslaved at Sweet Home along with Sethe, Halle, and Baby Suggs. After reuniting and developing a relationship with one another, Paul D becomes an important figure in Sethe’s life as a second chance at love after the disappearance of Halle. But Paul D can only do so much to support Sethe and her demons when he has a lot of his own to face as well. A theme that is referenced many times throughout the book is Paul D’s “tobacco tin” which has replaced his heart, a symbol for the repression of his thoughts, emotions, actions, and voice because of the profound, immeasurable wounds left in him by both slavery and the patriarchy.
The first reference to the tobacco tin is made in book one of Beloved, after Paul D reveals to Sethe that he had not said anything to Halle because of the bit forced into his mouth. Paul D is cautious with what he tells people, about what he feels or what he has been through. When Sethe describes the crazed look, she had seen those who had the bit had given her, Paul D responded “There’s a way to put it there and there’s a way to take it out. I know em both and I haven’t figured out, yet which is worse” (Morrison 82). The author goes on later to describe his solution, the tobacco tin, saying “What he was telling her was only the beginning when… [she] stopped him… He would keep the rest… in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut” (Morrison 84). This metaphor describes the steps that Paul D, and many other people who have been inflicted by slavery, have taken in order to survive in the world after. The things they went through and the pain they experienced will never be okay, there is not anything that can be done about what had transpired, so they are forced to swallow it deep within themselves and contain it. They feel as if they can’t let it out. If they do, it would consume them.
Dissecting this scene further, we begin to see the multiple forces at play in Paul D’s heart beyond slavery. It reads “He would not pry it loose now in front of this sturdy woman, for if she got a whiff of the contents, it would shame him. And it would hurt her to know that there was no red heart bright as Mister’s comb beating in him” (Morrison 84). Even though both Paul D and Sethe have their own traumatic experiences with slavery, there is still a layer in which Paul D feels he must mask himself in front of Sethe in order to avoid a further shame. This shame is represented in this passage by Mister’s comb, a rooster whom Paul D envies during his time at Sweet Home and with the bit forced in him. A rooster’s comb is a symbol for masculinity in chickens, an example of an evolved flair often seen in male animals in order to attract mates and impose dominance in their group. So for Paul D to be shamed that his heart is not matching up to the strong comb of Mister is to say that Paul D feels he doesn’t have that symbol of which the patriarchal systems set up ask of him. If a rooster is to be strong, he is to have his comb. Without it, the patriarchal system of values that Paul D is subject to labels him as weak, feminine, and not viable for procreation. This is the invisible power struggle that Paul D faces throughout the book against not only slavery, but the patriarchal orders that push him to be a “man” as they see fit.
In just one of the many ways that Toni Morrison’s Beloved has continued to fascinate me, the story is able to oversee both of these massive, exploitative power structures swimmingly and effectively create a resolution that is highly impactful on both. There are two parts to the finale of Sethe and Paul D’s arch that fully contextualize the two themes of struggle under patriarchy and slavery. The first is when Paul D recounts what Sixo told him about the Thirty-Mile Woman, saying “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. Its good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind” (Morrison 321). In this, Sixo and Paul D have both seen what could be described as a higher echelon of actualization and perception. One not based on the society in which they live but in the relationship that they cultivate. Outside of it, the labels and scars that slavery and patriarchy have put onto the men weigh on them. But when they step back inside the love, they are seen with clear eyes by someone who doesn’t hold them accountable for not being what this world, that has constantly shafted them, thinks they are. Sixo felt it, and in that freedom, he was happy to laugh in the face of his oppressors as he was burned at the stake. “Seven-O! Seven-O” he cried, as not just a joy that he may live on and through his offspring but also a joy that his child will be a result of a Black man breaking from the societal strains of slavery and patriarchy put onto them. Sixo’s son is a success story even when he is still a twinkle in their eye, and Paul D has realized the power that love holds.
When he thinks about it, he thinks about Sethe. He analyzes her in a way reminiscent of his analysis before, where he was very insulting and grossed out by her. Except this time, he is able to see with the clear eyes that love gives him rather than viewing Sethe through standards in which she is held up to just as much (if not more so) than he is. But he also realizes why she has always enamored him. For when he was at his lowest, feeling even lower than a caged animal, she looked at him in a way that gave him no shame. “Only this woman Sethe could have left him his manhood like that. He wants to put his story next to hers” (Morrison 322). Sethe saw him for who he was, something that nobody has. She gave him what he never had, a stability in his identity. A confidence. It’s not Sethe humoring a man and making him feel good due to his “weak masculinity” complex, it’s realizing that Paul D is a human being who has never once been treated like anything more than cattle. No matter if it was as slave, or as man, Paul D was silenced with the bit that kept his emotions locked up in that tobacco tin.
Toni Morrison’s Beloved’s main focus is on Sethe and her struggles under patriarchy and slavery. But it was even more of an encompassing and impactful tale by including so many other experiences with it. We had Denver’s experiences as a young girl after slavery, we have Baby Suggs grappling with God, Stamp Paid’s own struggles with community. With the addition of Paul D and his own conflicts, Beloved was able to show readers yet another layer of complexity with these times and gave to us moments of deep truth on what it is to be a man, a woman, and most of all, a human being.
