Power in Song of Beloved

Toni Morrison’s Beloved features a transformation of consciousness through the power of slave song, in which songs become a companion of a slave narrative that must be laid to rest. This is the case for Paul D, who once took refuge in the music from his chain gang suffering.“The songs he knew from georgia were flat-headed nails for pounding”, in that the songs are tightly-knit with the components and actions of his chain-gang (Morrison, 48). The spiritual songs themselves act as a metaphorical material of slavery, in which songs are buried inside Paul D’s heart much like nails become buried into the tracks. The songs, like the nails, become immeasurable. His history as a chain-gang member is infused in his head via both the sensory details of his labor and the lyrical tune of the chain-gang music that accompanied it. The spiritual songs and the labor both have a rhythm as the “pounding” of the flat-head nails acts as a meter. This description of songs as an element of the hammering nails  prefaces Paul D’s description of chain-gang slavery that connects singing slaves songs to painful memories that Paul D wishes to reject.

Though no man in the chain-gang can directly intervene with their suffering, Morrison depicts singing as an acts of power and defiance. Between shouting “Hiii” to their guards, paul D details two-step dance the chain gang juxtaposing the “music” of the iron (Morrison, 127). The wording creates a cruel irony of the free-expressive nature of dance and music juxtaposes the limitations of the bindings. “They sang it out and beat it up”, as they chain dance over fields and trails, “garbling the words so they could not be understood” (Morrison 128). Morrison makes “it” ambiguously count as both song and nail. The whole provides a glimpse of how songs required encryption from their oppressors. While their bodies and dignity were robbed from them, spiritual songs became a treasured source of pride. If these slurred songs could be hidden from guards and masters, it gave hope. Songs held promise and power as a ethereal possession that could be shared.

“They sang the women they knew; the children they had been; the animals they had tamed themselves or seen others tame. They sang of bosses and masters and misses; of mules and dogs and the shamelessness of life. They sang lovingly of graveyards and sisters long gone. Of pork in the woods; meal in the pan; fish on the line; cane, rain and rocking chairs.” (Morrison, 108)

While songs about women are typically about old lovers, it is possible they refer to mothers and family. The children they had been recalls innocence while the stories of taming invoke power. While they could not be heard by guards, they could talk about their owners uncensored. The “shamelessness of life” refers positively to living carefree, while remembering graveyards and sisters long gone celebrates past lives. Each item of the list may be entirely unqiue, but are bound by the fact that they express the men’s inner feelings.  These songs represent the values that motivate beyond mere survival, but into prideful memory that remembers better times before daily labor. The uplifting power of spiritual songs comes from their ability to draw on fond memories during hardship. They want to remember peaceful domestic life. But Paul D lives in the peaceful domestic life. Now these songs do not inspire hope but instead memories of the chain-gang. This kind of uplifting power shines now due to the oppressive atmosphere of the chain-gang, due to the fact that they are the only way to survive the suffering.

But for Paul D, these spiritual songs have no use while out of bondage besides reminding him of his past. Sethe’s home represents a new beginning for Paul D, which is much like the life that the spiritual songs sought to find. “But they didn’t fit, these songs. They were too loud, had too much power for the little house chores he was engaged in…” (Morrison, 48”) The songs themselves “didn’t fit” as though the songs had a physical presence that dwarfed 124, and would make the “little house” burst. Paul D himself could emotionally burst if he sang the songs with feeling. The songs were “loud”, not in volume, but in meaning and power. To equate the depth of emotions felt in the chain-gang under duress to the chores of his . The songs no longer had the power to let Paul D remember times before slave labor, but instead have the power to never lose his past. While other characters such as Baby Suggs can reimagine their past narrative into new narrative like the sermons in the clearing, Paul D refuses to acknowledge his old songs. Paul D models how to handle an emotionally powerful past through constructive reimagining, but by exorcising the songs like a ghost.

While writing this post, I was struggling to make clear sense of the layered symbolism in Beloved. It occurred to me that the slavery experience of one character like Paul D not only vastly differed from others, but had it’s own set of complicating factors such as songs. The emphasis the book places on power juxtaposed to song made me curious about exploring it further. I’ve learned that spiritual songs become further complicated in the moment and in retrospect from Paul D. As a motif, song may be more subtle than death and ghosts, but the memory of song haunts and terrifies Paul D much like a ghost does.