Told from the modulating viewpoints of 15-year-old slave Amari, and 17-year-old indentured servant Polly, Copper Sun is a story of resilience in the face of human depravity, and a hope for freedom against all odds. When the novel opens, Amari is a happy teenager, engaged to the most handsome man in her African village, and beloved by her parents. When white men enter her village for the first time, her people welcome them with open arms, but the men are here for violence. The white men shoot and kill most of Amari's village before setting it aflame. They chain and shackle the healthy youth and cram them into a slave ship set for America. A terrified Amari is sold to Mr. Percival Derby as a birthday present for his eldest son, Clay. At the …show more content…
same time, Mr. Derby purchases the indenture of a seventeen-year-old girl named Polly, who has 14 years left on her service before she earns her freedom. When Polly first meets Amari, she doesn't want anything to do with her. Polly feels superior to Amari because Polly is a white girl who will eventually be free, while Amari is a black slave, no more than a beast of burden in many white people's eyes. Life on the Derby plantation is horrendous for both girls, and in time, they forge a bond based simply on their will to survive their terrible condition.
This bond strengthens after Clay begins raping Amari and Polly sees first-hand just how scare Amari is, which is the same reaction Polly would have to the treatment. She realizes that blacks, even though they are slaves, have the same emotions, and are just as human, as their white slave holders. The only respite for the two young girls comes from the feisty humor of Mr. Derby's slave cook, Teenie, the unbreakable precociousness of Teenie's four-year-old son Tidbit, and the secret kindness of Mr. Derby's eighteen-year-old second wife, who is nearly nine months pregnant. When Mr. Derby remarried after his first wife passed away, his teenage bride came to her new home with all her belongings and her favorite slave, Noah. When Mrs. Derby goes into labor on the plantations, the slave women, including Amari, quickly rush to her aid. Amari is horrified when she sees that Mrs. Derby's baby does not share the white skin of Mr. Derby, but is a beautiful caramel brown, the same color as Noah's skin. Mrs. Derby admits to the girls that she and Noah are deeply in love, and she begs them to help her save her baby. All the slave women band together in an attempt to hide the truth from Mr. Derby, claiming that the baby was stillborn and had to be quickly buried, but Mr. Derby demands to see the body. When no one can
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An interesting aspect of reading Sunjata is that it allows the reader to get a glimpse into the past. An unmissable trait that the story brings up is the power and control that women hold within their marriages and families overall. Part of this power comes from the West African people carrying on their family through a matrilineal system. Familial ties are a significant motif in Sunjata with even the storyteller tracing his ancestry back to the strong women told about in the oral tale. The matrilineal system means that instead of children taking the name of their father, as seen in many European societies, they would take the name of their mother and hold closer to the ties of her ancestors. This system allows for a sense of feminism to sprinkle all over the story of Sunjata and, ultimately, on the
Janie’s grandmother was a slave. She was raped by one of her owners, that is how she got pregnant with Janie’s mother. Janie’s mother, Leafy, was raped by a teacher, which made her pregnant with Janie only at age 17. Their whole background is men taking advantage over the women, and then not caring about them, mainly because they don’t care to see them again. When Janie is 16, she is gradually beginning to learn things about sex. Her grandma pronounces her a woman, and when an older man named Logan Killicks is interested in marrying Janie, “Nanny” marries them at their house, and then they
In Cold Sassy GA, the town is filled with gossip surrounding the town’s newest newlyweds. Will Tweedy finds himself eyewitness to it all. Grandpa E Rucker Blakeslee has ‘tied the knot’ with the young milliner, Miss Love Simpson. With it being only three weeks after the death of his last wife, the family and town alike are shocked. Confused but curious about it all, Will observes what it means to be husband and wife and what it really means to love. Puzzled by the secrets shared between the two, he tries to figure out just why Grandpa Blakeslee asked Miss Love for her hand in marriage and why she even agreed. While Grandpa Blakeslee is experiencing his second adolescence, Will is trying to make it through his first. When Will gets hit by a train and is still alive to tell about it, Grandpa Blakeslee gives him a lesson on God’s Will. And Will starts to realize not everyone interprets things the same way. When the mill child, Lightfoot crosses Will’s path his heart skips a beat. With all Will’s new found attractions and desires he decided to try his luck with the girls. That’s when he experiences his first kiss, and also his first heartbreak. After the innocent Uncle Camp kill’s himself due to Aunt Loma’s constant criticism, Will starts to question how he treats people. He starts to wonder if maybe he helped his uncle pull the trigger. Soon after that Grandpa Blakeslee’s store isn’t doing all that well. Two unidentified strangers come and rob Grandpa Blakeslee blind, in the process beating him up ‘something awful’. With his weakness effecting his immune system, he catches a bad case of pneumonia and soon passes away. But not before Miss Love could tell him what he had been waiting to hear his whole life…. He would soon have a son to carry on the family name. Not at all scared of death or the unknown, Grandpa Blakeslee orders a letter to be read concerning his funeral and remains. But to everyone’s surprise he orders the cheapest and lowest class funeral and orders himself nothing, but a wooden box. Wanting no one to mourn over him and everyone to know that he was dead...
In the book Copper Sun the author introduces you to many different characters. One of the main characters in Amari. Amari isn't just a character to me, she is someone I feel I can connect with. Amari goes on a tough journey with many other slaves, she finds hardships on the journey to Sullivan’s island. I feel like I connected the most with Amari even though she is a girl.
The book focuses on the lives of an eleven year old girl names India “Opal” Buloni, the protagonist, and her companionship dog names Winn-Dixie. Opal recalled her experience of the summer her life changed because of her adopted dog. In beginning of the first chapter, we are introduced to relationship of Opal and her father, whom she usually refers to as "the preacher." Her mother abandoned the family when Opal was three year old and is often unaccompanied in her trailer park as her father
In life we go through very hard times that’s just how life circles, but do these problems really help shape your spirit to who you are today and who you will be one day in the future? In the book Copper Sun by Sharon Draper Amari overcomes some of the most complicated problems in the history of the U.S., in which I personally don’t think I would have been able to handle as swiftly and fast as Amari had. With the help of others Amari was able to create a strong backbone to carry her thought out the way and support her in her worst times. Although some of these influences weren’t always the best people such as Clay, he helped shape Amaris future and the theme of the story. Finally, how important where the minor characters on helping to shape the main character’s spirit and inner mind, and after that transaction how where they able to slowly develop the theme/message of the book?
These beliefs include how women should act in society and in marriage. Nanny and her daughter, Janie's mother, were both raped and left with bastard children, this experience is the catalyst for Nanny’s desire to see Janie be married to a well-to-do gentleman. She desires to see Janie married to a well-to-do gentleman because she wants to see that Janie is well cared for throughout her life. As a result of Nanny’s desire to see Janie married to wealth, she forces Janie to marry Logan Killocks, an older black farmer who owns 60 acres and a mule. Janie does not love Logan but because Nanny pushes her into the marriage she believes love will follow marriage, but Nanny quickly says “You come head wid yo’ mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day.
D'Arcy McNickle, through his classic novel, Runner in the Sun, is able to articulate a clear and well informed account of the historic cultures and lifestyles of Native Americans, document the struggles of these groups as they adapt to changing environmental and social circumstances, propose solutions to these struggles in the form of new crops, knowledge, and leadership, critique modern culture through the activities of his characters, and support an engaging and well-constructed storyline. The primary struggles demonstrated in this work seem to be those between Native Americans and Nature and those within Native American society. The story documents these people as they work to reconcile these struggles. Solutions are proposed and adopted
Amari is a fictional character in a historical fiction book. She may not be real or actually have feelings, but reading Copper Sun made me change on how I think about characters. This is a story of what possibly could’ve happened in a young teenagers life. Although Amari and I have many similarities and differences, I still can connect to her. Amari is fighting for her life just like any other slave would've during this
As the novel begins, Janie walks into her former hometown quietly and bravely. She is not the same woman who left; she is not afraid of judgment or envy. Full of “self-revelation”, she begins telling her tale to her best friend, Phoeby, by looking back at her former self with the kind of wistfulness everyone expresses when they remember a time of childlike naïveté. She tries to express her wonderment and innocence by describing a blossoming peach tree that she loved, and in doing so also reveals her blossoming sexuality. To deter Janie from any trouble she might find herself in, she was made to marry an older man named Logan Killicks at the age of 16. In her naïveté, she expected to feel love eventually for this man. Instead, however, his love for her fades and she beco...
Janie who continually finds her being defined by other people rather than by herself never feels loved, either by her parents or by anybody else. Her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth to her. All she had was her grandmother, Nanny, who protected and looked after her when she was a child. But that was it. She was even unaware that she is black until, at age six, she saw a photograph of herself. Her Nanny who was enslaved most of her lifetime only told her that a woman can only be happy when she marries someone who can provide wealth, property, and security to his wife. Nanny knew nothing about love since she never experienced it. She regarded that matter as unnecessary for her as well as for Janie. And for that reason, when Janie was about to enter her womanhood in searching for that love, Nanny forced her to marry Mr. Logan Killicks, a much older man that can offer Janie the protection and security, plus a sixty-acre potato farm. Although Janie in her heart never approves what her Nanny forced her to do, she did it anyway. She convinced herself that by the time she became Mrs. Killick, she would get that love, which turned out to be wrong.
Nanny was determined that Janie would break the cycle of oppression of black women, who were "mules for the world". (Both of Janie's first two husbands owned mules and the way they treated their mules paralleled to the way they treated Janie. Logan Killicks worked his mule demandingly and Joe Starks bought Matt Bonner's mule and put it out to pasture as a status symbol.) After joyfully discovering an archetype for sensuality, love, and marriage under a pear tree at sixteen, Janie quickly comes to understand the reality of marriage in her first two marriages. Both Logan Killicks and Joe Starks attempt to coerce her into submission by treating her like a possession (Killicks worked her like a mule and Starks used her like a medal around his neck). Also Janie learned that passion and love are tied to violence, as Killicks threaten to kill her and Starks beat her to assert his dominance. She continually struggled to keep her inner self-intact and strong in spite ...
Once a slave, Nanny tells of being raped by her master, an act from which Janie’s mother was brought into the world. With a
As a child Janie’s race is something she realizes later, but is still an important part of her life. As a child Janie grew up with a white family, named the Washburns, for whom Nanny worked as a nanny for. It is not until Janie sees herself in a picture with the Washburns children that she realizes she is black, Janie recounts her realization t...
Alexie begins the essay by telling the audience some background information about himself and his family. He tells of how they lived on an Indian Reservation and survived on “a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.” (Page 1, para. 1) Right from the start, Alexie grabs the emotions of his audience. Alexie then goes on to talk of his father and how because of his love for his father, he developed a love for reading. “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” (Page 1, para. 2) He talks of how he taught himself to read and that because of the books he began to thirst for more knowledge. Alexie says that once he learned to read, he began to advance quickly in his schooling. However, because of his thirst for knowledge, he got into much trouble. “A smart Indian was a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” (Page 2, para. 6) This statement is one of the most powerful statements in the entire essay. The reason for this being that Alexie knows that trouble will come but he was not going to let it ...