The color red is used to symbolize many different things in BELOVED (Toni Morrison, 1987). Paul D's heart represents emotions, and Amy Denver's red velvet represents hope. Red is both a positive and negative image. The red roses along the road to the carnival symbolize familial life, but the flowers are also a reminder of mortality. Beloved is particularly tainted by red, as evidenced by the crimson pools of light she scatters around the house as a ghost, before she returns in the flesh and blood: because she was killed by her mother to save her from a life of slavery, her memory is literally blood-stained.