Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a novel centered around two sides of a family tree that began with a woman named Maame. It covers the beginning of colonialism in West Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Colonialism is when a foreign country seeks to gain power or control over another, typically for trade reasons. Throughout the book, readers can capture how those two events affected each side of the family in different ways. Homegoing features various themes but the major three include racism, family expectations, and gender/sex roles. Each theme is important and essential to the different characters and their actions and development. Though, one theme is more prevalent and detrimental to characters than others, that theme is racism.In the …show more content…
Although H has just been freed from slavery because of its abolishment, he is put back into a similar position because he allegedly stared at a white woman. Gyasi highlights, “‘Say you were studyin’ a white woman’ ‘Who say?’ ‘The police. Heard ‘em talkin’ ‘bout what to say ‘fore they went out to get you’... By sunrise the next morning, on a sweltering July day in 1880, H was chained to ten other men and sold by the state of Alabama to work the coal mines just outside of Birmingham” (Gyasi 158-159). In this quote, H’s cellmate explains to him why he has been arrested, implying the police have falsely accused him. After being prosecuted, H is sentenced to become a coal miner where he and many other men receive harsh treatment daily. He was merely arrested because the government believes black people are only good for profit. Once slavery was abolished, they had to find another way to produce economic gain, so they created a legal form of slavery. Similar to Kojo and the police officer, H had a racist interaction with the coal pit …show more content…
Chapter 4 “Ness” is centered around an enslaved woman who has recently been moved to a new plantation. Throughout the chapter, Ness has re-accounts of the abuse she received at her previous plantation. This abuse is what led her and her husband, Sam, to attempt to escape to provide a better life for their son, Kojo. Though, Ness and Sam were caught and faced with extreme consequences. Gyasi explains, “He marched Ness and Sam back to Hell. He stripped them both bare, tied Sam so tight he couldn't even wiggle his fingers and made him watch as Ness earned the stripes that would make her too ugly to work in a house ever again.the rope came out, the tree branch bend, the head snap free from her body.she couldn't help but remember that day. Sam’s head. Sam’s head tilted to the left and swung” (Gyasi 87). In this quote, Ness recalls the day she and Sam were caught. Ness was beaten until she could not hold her head up and was forced to watch her husband be killed. This quote proves that racism causes inescapable trauma because Ness constantly recalls the treatment she received in “Hell” and she is unable to heal from it because she is in another plantation. Racism has followed Ness and cost her, her husband and son. In addition to this, Akua faced abuse similar to Ness that she could not truly escape. Chapter 9 of Homegoing is centered around Akua, a woman raised by a white missionary
Which is what would also occur with family member dealing with someone who has a mental illness. Thus describing how someone may feel like a slave to that person’s illness and how when a recurrence would appear it felt as though they are being sold to auctioneers. When Keri goes to pick up Trina from the 72 hour hold she states, “Something bad was going to happen. The signs were all there: massa was on his deathbed; mistress was crying. Auctioneers and lawyers were assembled on the veranda. I could feel the overseer’s eyes assessing the value of my flesh, her flesh. This wasn’t my first plantation. Deep South, that’s where I was heading” (Campbell 79). In this case, Keri uses how a slave would observe their surroundings while being auctioned. But also uses the viewpoint of a slave who has been sold multiple times and realize that this is not a favorable position to be in. Also referring to the Deep South which would be the worse environment for them considering their current position. As a result, this allusion describes how many family members taking responsibility for someone may feel as their person goes down a dark path once again. While also describing how they have begun to notice when that somebody is going to go down that path and would realize that what is going on is not taking them anywhere wonderful. In conclusion, this allusion helps to create a sort of imagery as to how a caretaker may feel when they experience multiple recurrences with their person’s mental
In all, Tademy does a great job in transporting her readers back to the 1800s in rural Louisiana. This book is a profound alternative to just another slave narrative. Instead of history it offers ‘herstory’. This story offers insight to the issues of slavery through a women’s perspective, something that not so many books offer. Not only does it give readers just one account or perspective of slavery but it gives readers a take on slavery through generation after generation. From the early days of slavery through the Civil War, a narrative of familial strength, pride, and culture are captured in these lines.
One could attest that the Miner is not consciously thinking about slavery as is the Lawyer, and instead rather let his subconscious, which had been taught by his socio-economic upbringing, believe that blacks are slaves because they are black. To believe such a fallacy, among others, the Lawyer deems as ridiculous.12 The Lawyer fully acknowledges the fact that in his dealing with slaves he would treats slaves worse than anyone. He says this because he is consciously aware of the history of black slavery and its inherent evils. And due to his conscious awareness he would be able to implement the most ruthless tactics inflicting the most pain making him a closely related to a wild
She stopped letting me sleep on the bottom bunk; she began to tease me about my fears.” (Evans 46). As 9 years old child, Allison is annoyed of Tara because she’s being tedious. Allison’s act might be seen as siding with her grandmother, and this directly explains that Tara went through the suffering alone, without anyone supporting her. This might be the reason why in the end, Tara decided to jumped off the tree, because she felt tortured and pressured badly by everyone surround her, and no one ever pay attention to her. Her best friend who she had always spent time with, giving her back to her, and stressed her to the point that she dare to jump. Somehow, we encounter these kind of situations in real life, and Evans are trying to make readers realize such tragedy really did happened in our surroundings. Frustration due to racial discrimination actually happens commonly. Those kinds of mistreatment that one’s receiving due to differences in race or culture indirectly affect his or her mentality and their character development. Evans wants the readers realize that such offensive behavior we frequently do – whether it is intentional or not intentional – affect other person’s psychological state. Readers ought to be aware of any shape of discrimination among our society and to select suitable actions when binding relationship with people from other
Communities are meant to be a space of security in where community members help each other. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza, a growing child feels the absence of the community’s help. Through a series of vignettes, Esperanza’s child-like voice reveals the dysfunctionality of the community. Esperanza doesn’t find anyone who she can rely on to help her through her coming of age. The situation is made especially difficult because of her Mexican-American heritage label. The ambiguity of her name presents a bi-cultural identity dilemma. Esperanza’s character represents what many female minorities experience, the lack of agency and solidarity their communities offer to them. The constant similes, through a child’s eyes, are also used to compare the lack of agency females have in this community. Although the community seems to be hopeless, ultimately, Esperanza’s character grows to find that there is hope for her community, igniting a desire to come back and help.
Gisele Pineau’s novel Exile According to Julia is all about a sense of belonging, of home. As this novel demonstrates, home is not always a place: sometimes it is a person. For the young narrator of this story home is embodied in her grandmother Julia (affectionately called Man Ya). This is a story of immigration, exile, alienation, and of discovery of home and self. The novel details Man Ya’s ‘exile’ from her home in Guadalupe to Paris to live with the narrator and her family. Depressed and constantly longing for home, Man Ya eventually returns to Guadalupe leaving the narrator and family bereft. After her departure, the narrator continuously writes to Man Ya as years go by. She never responds. Eventually the family returns to Guadalupe to be with Man Ya. The novel ends with Julia sharing her Guadalupe with her grandchildren, climbing trees, gardening, and laughing. The time that the narrator spent with her grandmother had a profound impact on her life. Julia was her teacher, her connection to her Caribbean ancestry, and her home.
Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig is a novel that presents the harshness of racial prejudice during the 19th century combined with the traumas of abandonment. The story of Frado, a once free-spirited mulatto girl abandoned by her white mother, unfolds as she develops into a woman. She is faced with all the abuse and torment that Mrs. Belmont, the antagonist, could subject her to. Still she survives to obtain her freedom. Through the events and the accounts of Frado’s life the reader is left with a painful reality of the lives of indentured servants.
Slave owners rarely doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. They were degrading human beings and making them suffer awful torments in order to make a profit. This is why 12 Years a Slave is such a compelling story. It describes tragic tales of slaves by giving the full truth and depicting everyday life as a slave in the Antebellum South. Northup describes his journey with his many slave masters and educates his audience on what tasks and treatment slaves had to deal with on a daily basis. He does this by detailing the abuses he endured as well as the abuses he was forced to inflict on others. He also captured the various master’s personalities and used them to showcase the different tactics that were used to keep slaves in submission. Thirdly, Northup shared other slaves’ stories to show how they differ from his own and to discuss the negative physical, emotional, and spiritual effects. The book describes what different characters experienced under varied circumstances. Some slaves had kind masters, whereas others had cruel dictators. In short, the slave owner’s disposition and personality did determine how their slaves would be treated. Comparatively, the type of jobs that slaves did depended on their environment as well as their skill set. Therefore, 12 Years a Slave is a gripping memoir that addresses the diversity of slavery in full color and provides a clear warning of the moral consequences slavery disregards. The slaves were not the only ones that were affected. Slave owners were desensitized and stripped of their morals. They forgot that blacks were humans too. The natural human interactions of love, justice, and respect were lost at the time this work was written. In spite of this, Northup’s testimony is proof that faith and hope can overcome any
In relation to the novel, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s disobedience ultimately sparked his freedom. Being introduced to the “heart-rending shrieks” from his aunt at such a young age, slavery implanted a long-lasting effect on his life. Often times, when one experiences a painful memory in the manner such as watching a family member hit until they are covered with blood, sparks a fire to stand up for what is right in the back of their mind. Douglass carried those visions of his aunt along with him his whole life, as well as his own repulsive
Imagine that it is the late nineteenth to early twentieth century in the American South. Imagine a work environment where the only reward for hard labor and back breaking tasks is not being beaten that day. Imagine barely getting enough to meet even one’s most basic needs, and that the only way out of this cruel cycle is by death or an almost impossible escape. This is the world in which Marriah Hines lives. Luckily for her, she only witnesses such atrocities; she never has to endure them as most slaves did during her lifetime and for hundreds of years before her. How is this possible? The compassion of one man, her master, saves her from the worst aspects of slavery. Her master is not the stereotypically cruel slave owner that dominates
A Raisin In the Sun, The House On Mango Street, and A Yellow Raft In Blue Water all contain strong, defined images of women. These women control and are controlled. They are oppressed and liberated. Standing tall, they are confident and independent. Hunched low, they are vulnerable and insecure. They are grandmothers, aunts, mothers, wives, lovers, friends, sisters and children. Although they span a wide range of years and roles, a common thread is woven through all of their lives, a thread which confronts them day in and day out. This thread is the challenge they face as minority women in America to find liberation and freedom from lives loaded down with bondage. These women fight to live and in their living they display their strengths and their weaknesses. They demonstrate the opposition many women face being viewed as the inferior sex as well as discrimination against their ethnicity. In this struggle Hansberry, Dorris and Cisneros depict women attempting to find confidence and security in the society around them. Comparing and contrasting the novels A Raisin In the Sun, The House On Mango Street, and A Yellow Raft In Blue Water, three principal images of women emerge: their strength, bondage and liberation. These images combine to depict the struggle of many minority women, regardless of their ethnic background, and shapes the character they draw from society.
Valerie Martin’s Novel Property is an engrossing story of the wife of a slave owner and a slave, whom a mistress of the slave owner, during the late 18th century in New Orleans. Martin guides you through both, Manon Guadet and her servant Sarah’s lives, as Ms. Gaudet unhappily lives married on a plantation and Sarah unhappily lives on the plantation. Ms. Gaudet’s misserableness is derived from the misfortune of being married to a man that she despises and does not love. Sarah, the slave, is solely unhappy due to the fact that she is a slave, and has unwillingly conceived to children by Ms. Gaudiest husband, which rightfully makes Sarah a mistress. Throughout the book, Martin captivates the reader and enables you to place yourself in the characters shoes and it is almost as you can relate to how the characters are feeling.
Dealing with racism and sexism is never any easy task, especially when you are at a rather young age when you are experiencing those things. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros tackles these issues through the view of Esperanza and her interactions with the people she encounters in her neighborhood. The development of different groups and people’s identity is formed by providing examples of racism and the various aspects that tie in with it. The themes of racism and sexism are also helpfully developed through Esperanza’s growing and changing views as she matures and comes to realize that everyone's stereotypes of the people who live in her neighborhood are unfounded and discriminatory.
One of the main characters suffered most from this theme of isolation indefinitely. Poor Sethe. Through her life she was forced to make many indelicate decisions which could have cost her, her life, but comparatively the only life that was lost was here daughters. The way her daughter was conceived was not what Sethe wanted. When a woman is raped, I feel that she loses part of herself possibly a piece of dignity. Sethe became detached from herself for she felt that nothing in the world could do right if something like this could happen. Not only did she have to deal with that fact, which created some inner isolation, she also had to make the decision whether or not to kill her daughter or let her suffer through a life of slavery. She made the decision to have her daughter killed. This also created some detachment from herself. Perhaps she felt as if her mind had deceived because she had her daughter killed. But yet, s...
The scars on Sethe’s back serve as another testament to her disfiguring and dehumanizing years as a slave. Like the ghost, the scars also work as a metaphor for the way that past tragedies affect us psychologically, “haunting” or “scarring” us for life. More specifically, the tree shape formed by the scars might symbolize Sethe’s incomplete family tree. It could also symbolize the burden of existence itself, through an allusion to the “tree of knowledge” from which Adam and Eve ate, initiating their mortality and suffering. Sethe’s “tree” may also offer insight into the empowering abilities of interpretation. In the same way that the white men are able to justify and increase their power over the slaves by “studying” and interpreting them according to their own whims, Amy’s interpretation of Sethe’s mass of ugly scars as a “chokecherry tree” transforms a story of pain and oppression into one of survival.