Themes: Custom and Tradition

The social norms of the South were a set of guidelines passed down through generations, primarily from fathers to sons. These norms dictated that black and white people were to be viewed and treated differently. This differentiation extended beyond merely skin color to include bloodlines and social hierarchy, as highlighted by Mary Agnes's predicament. Likewise, Sam Guidry considers Jimmy Caya less than white because of his modest background....

Themes: Choices and Consequences

For most individuals, freedom means having the ability to make their own choices. At the beginning of the novel, the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation presents each slave with a decision—either to remain or to leave. Those who decide to leave are eager to embark on a new life but soon discover that achieving freedom is not straightforward. While the legal shackles have been removed, they lack the political influence and economic means to...

Themes: Politics

Miss Jane's narrative subtly reflects America's political history, spanning from the Emancipation Proclamation to the early 1960s. Although her century-long journey is shaped by significant events, she is not directly involved in them. This positions her as an ordinary person, with the exception of her extraordinary longevity; her distinctiveness lies in her ability to recount these events. In essence, monumental events like Lincoln's...

Themes: Struggle of African Americans in a Racist Society

The novel primarily explores the social issue of African Americans' struggle to endure in a racially prejudiced society. By the era of the 1960s civil rights movement, the character Miss Jane Pittman, depicted as an elderly woman, embodies someone who has witnessed the challenges faced by African Americans from the time of the Civil War onward. She is revered as a leader among her community, not due to political power, but because her extensive...

Themes: Violence and Oppression from Slavery to Reconstruction

The brutalities experienced during slavery, such as beatings, are reflected in the violence of the Reconstruction era, which includes lynchings and disappearances. Even as these incidents become less common, social, economic, and political discrimination, along with more subtle forms of oppression, continue to exist. As a slave, Jane suffers from beatings and being overworked. After gaining "freedom," ex-slaves who leave plantations are often...

Themes: Challenges in Black Education

The overt hostility of white people towards black education, when not completely overlooked, becomes ingrained and continues within the black community. Miss Lilly, a mulatto school teacher, encounters distrust because she provides toothbrushes for all the children and opposes a black father's harsh punishment of smoking his children in a tree. She departs after one year. Her successors estrange the community for different reasons until a...

Themes: Interracial Relationships and Racism

The plantation owner's effeminate son develops an unreturned schoolboy crush on her, which spirals into a doomed obsession, ultimately resulting in her disgrace and expulsion, followed by his suicide. The novel underscores the harsh impact of deep-seated racism on interracial relationships, especially as African Americans experience more significant social progress. One character even speculates that such relationships might have endured during...

Themes: Political, Social, and Economic Oppression

The harsh repression of interracial romantic relationships is matched by the political, social, and economic oppression that allows white plantation owners to retaliate against activists by forcibly removing their families from homes they have known all their lives. Yoko's eviction following her son Batlo's political activism is particularly devastating. She is given a mere twenty-four hours to vacate the plantation....