Iron Motif

Throughout the novel Beloved, the author utilizes iron as a motif to represent great strength. It is first introduced through the characterization of Sethe as “Halle’s girl--the one with iron eyes, and a backbone to match” (10). Her life as a past slave requires her to be strong, for, without the self-drive to defy her master and save her family, she would forever remain as nameless as her title. She would merely be an object belonging to someone else, a laborer, a subhuman, a slave. Her life after escaping slavehood also required great strength because she had to move past her painful memories and losses, defining herself as not just property, but rather a mother, a wife, and most importantly, a human being.

In its great power and strength, iron sometimes serves as a limitation, such as when Paul D has an iron bit in his mouth. His iron bit prevents him from saying something to make Halle stay as if the power of iron was so overwhelming that he couldn’t fight it (81). For Paul D, iron is a part of the past he can’t repress: “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest” (133). Iron is a physicality that has entered Paul D's tastebuds, infiltrating within him, until he feels trapped by the culmination of past pain. The pain can’t be placed in the tin box of his chest, and thus becomes the controller of Paul D’s body, rather than the controlee.