Paul D bid farewell to the tree by making efforts to take a last look at Brother, a sibling he found for himself at Sweet Home. At this last moment, the silhouette of the tree against the sky must have given Paul D some kind of power that helped him stop trembling out of fear as it had always given him protection and comfort during hardships. At the sight of Brother, Paul D was ready to begin his new journey, although he knew more brutality and torments were waiting for him. This scene of Paul D being forced to separate with Brother figuratively represents slavery’s effort of splitting up African American families.

In reality, slave trades often broke up families because the buyers did not care enough to purchase the whole family when their economic conditions only allowed for a few, or some members of the slave family were physically un-ideal. The setting of Paul D’s family itself signifies slavery’s inhumanity in creating parentless slave children; furthermore, the scene of Paul D separating with Brother was probably Morrison’s criticism toward the system through describing the details of the heart-torn farewell with imagery language.

However, the institution’s effort to separate families only ironically made Paul D’s need for family connections more desperate, and he eventually forms his family tie with Sethe who has an indelible tree on her skin. During the escape from the slave jail in Alfred, Georgia, Paul D “could not help being astonished by the beauty of this land that was not his. He hid in its breast, fingered its earth for food, clung to its banks to lap water and tried not to love it.” This personification displays nature as a mother who provided Paul D shelter in its breast and fed him with food. Despite that this land is “not his,” implying that his status as a slave in the south gave him no rights to own property or live independently, Paul D could not help but love Mother Nature.

The motherly characteristics of earth ties into Paul D’s need for family bonds as the dangers he faced on the escapes only made him love this “mother” more and more each day. After meeting Sethe, Paul D notices the tree-shaped scar on her back, which was left from beatings by her former owner. Paul D is drawn to Sethe, and he settles at her house, creating a new family with Sethe and her child Denver. Despite his own philosophy that slaves are only allowed to love small not to get hurt, Paul D “tries hard not to love” but unsurprisingly fails. He could not help but long for family connections, signified by his love for Sethe and the steady will to protect her. Different from his previous experience on the plantation, which was mainly “little love” for a tree or a flower, this time Paul D is unconsciously falling in love with Sethe — a breathing, living human being — and eager to form family ties. The tree on her back, as a result, witnesses Paul D’s transformation from little love to big love, proving that after all the hardships at Alfred, Georgia, Paul D’s need and eagerness for have a family are only becoming stronger.

Throughout the book, Paul D frequently brought up his philosophy of loving small to avoid getting hurt. But this theory is doomed to walk to a dead end since the very beginning when Paul D mistook loving a tree as loving small. He named the tree Brother, which determined that the nature of this connection with the tree was not trivial but a strong need for family ties: a need that only grew stronger as slavery was pressing to separate Paul D from his family. Eventually, the attraction that he showed toward Sethe’s tree on her back proved not only the realization of his need but also the fault of his loving small theory. Paul D, a former slave, was now able to love Sethe and her tree, loving big and free.