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Our own self interest...

“Think about it,” he said. And suddenly it was a solution, a way to hold on to her, document his manhood and break out a girls spell-all in one. He put the tips of sethe's fingers on his cheek. Laughing, she pulled them away, lest somebody passing the alley, and see them misbehaving in public in Daylight, in the wind. Still he'd gotten a little more time, bought it, a fact and hoped the price would wreck him. Like paying for an afternoon in the coin of life to come.”(151)

In the beginning of the novel Pauly D shows his discontent with Sethe and his poor choice for sticking with her and making her fall in love with him. He lost his attraction to her. But he can't run away now. So he decided to stick around and rekindle the fire he had for her. By taking her out and having a good time, “misbehaving in public” and in a sense being young again. Paul D refers to this evening out as a, “coin” to a life that will come. He calls it this because after the day out with Sethe he's happy and he's seeing things better. This evening out Paul D notices that he's still very fond of her and still has these emotional feelings to her. He feels hopeful now, and with this hope he is seeing a better future for him. He just wants to be happy at the end of it all without having to change his current situation. They both feel young again, because it wasn't really the idea of living the rest of his life with Sethe's but actually the idea that their life would become boring. Paul D notices that he and Sethe's are in the same page when it comes to making their relationship better and you see this occur in future events of Beloved. As long as both of them are trying, things have the possibility of working out good, and Pauly D has just found that out. This is the , “solution” to his problem, and although it is a selfish thing that he has been feeling like this and has not talked to Sethe's about how she's feeling instead of just worrying about himself. He has the right to find his own happiness and that's how life works. Many people do things because it's in their own self interest.


Paul D is going back and forth about his relationship with Sethe because he believes that Sethe isn't the same women as she was before. H e wants to feel excitement, happiness, passion, and that seems to have run out in their relationship. Yet he doesnt know anyone else he can find that with. Hes in a way clinched to Sethe due to all the things that they have been through. Staying with her is the only possible choice in his head . So he might as well make it better. Taking her to an exiting place and allowing everything else to fall into its place