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for display.” Paul D has no real words to express his emotions at that time except for “Aw, Lord, girl”, while on page 18 he shows his desire to heal Sethe and make things better in another way. “He would have no peace until he had touched every ridge and leaf of it with his mouth, none of which Sethe could feel because her back skin had been dead for years. What she knew was that the responsibility for her breasts, at last, was in someone else's hands.” Again, the true communication and interpersonal connection occur, not through words, but through scars and physical markings. Paul D later refers to her back in much different terms after they first had sex and he begins to doubt himself. The passion has worn off, the explorations have ceased, and, on page 21, the scars tell Paul D a very different story than the one he had chosen to see previously. “The wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawing through pay dirt was in fact a revolting clump of scars.” The uncomfortable silence between them will not be broken, at least for a while, and Paul D again sees her scars in a different way. He dismisses Sethe’s earlier verbal description of her scar (a chokecherry tree), and reinterprets it once more. He says it was “not a tree, as she said, Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like an tree he knew because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted...” After Paul D's immediate sense of discovery and physical connection with Sethe’s scars has passed, he is too uncomfortable to break their shared silence. His thoughts betray his insecurity in relying on mere words, unsure of what he should say and the effects of those words. He seems to infer, perhaps, that verbal communication is too volatile and best left to trees or other inhuman objects who ask for no commitment, and whose feelings cannot be hurt. 1.4 Scars, a form of positive communication Without a doubt, there are many interesting complications implicit in the discussion of scars in Beloved. Scars are placed on the bodies of Sethe, Paul D, Sixo, and Sethe’s mother for the purpose of showing ownership and superiority. The “majority” people’s intention is to tell those who are powerless that self-definition cannot be defined by themselves but their owner. However, the characters in Beloved have proven that these markings are negotiable. Sethe’s situation in particular seems to illustrate how scars may be subjugated in terms of interpretation and meaning. For Sethe, scars have acted as a means of connection between her and Paul D as well as a means of identification of her mother. While scarring itself is undoubtedly a negative act of communication. Therefore, characters such as Sethe transcend this act, making scars a form of positive communication. Scars can tell their stories and provide a means of identifying those they love. There are some limits to communication through scars, however, as Sethe’s interaction with Beloved suggests. Regardless of such limits, scars do act as a positive form of communication in Beloved. This once again proves that human authority figures can only have limited control over other human beings, no matter what measures of cruelty and suppression they may employ. Even the powerless may reclaim their powers, including the power of definition through the reclamation of communication, in whatever form it happens to exist. 2. Numbers and the symbolic meanings Humanity uses numbers as a w