Second Chances In Toni Morrison's Beloved

Mankind has made multiple mistakes through generations of hardship and kinship, but always develops through these mistakes to display the best version of himself/herself. Second chances do not come around often, but when they come, humans tend to make the best of it. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, Stamp Paid has a past he would rather move on from than look back to. Thus, in the novel, Stamp Paid is a prominent character who is instrumental in developing Morrison’s theme, second chances allow individuals to progress by learning from their past mistakes. Morrison establishes the message of the importance of second chances through Stamp Paid’s name change, portraying who he tries to be rather than who he is in the past. Paid’s name

Through the blackberry pie party, Stamp Paid, willingly, extends his hands to others with his second chance at doing things better in life. He goes through the trouble of getting the best blackberries for Baby Suggs, coming back with “his shredded clothes, bleeding hands, [and] welting face and neck” (Morrison 136). He is not receiving water for someone grasping for life, but the gesture is coming from the goodness in his heart to accomplish something appreciative for another human being. Rather than being selfish, he feels it is necessary to go through all that trouble for a person, demonstrating the change within himself is as powerful as the change in his name. Stamp Paid’s character is under development through the major sequences of the novel, from a person who wants “to kill [the master’s son]” to a person who tries to do “all he can” for others (Morrison 233, 235). He takes all his sinful desire and banishes it in order to be someone people, including himself, have respect for. Moreover, when he realizes Paul D is staying at the cold church, he furiously makes notice that when “a blackman [comes] to town[,] [he] has to sleep in a cellar like a dog” because no one “offer[s] [him] a bed” (Morrison 186). His concern for the wellbeing of an individual