What is the theme of "The Slave Dancer"?
Jessie is a 13 year-old boy that has been imprisoned on a slave ship. The theme of this novel is imprisonment and the fight for freedom. Jessie is taken from his home against his will and put aboard the Moonlight. The Moonlight is a slave ship and he is expected to play a fife to keep the slaves dancing. Jessie hates being a prisoner and he hates being aboard a prison ship. When the opportunity arrises for Jessie to escape during a battle with the Spanish traders he takes a young slave boy with him and they find freedom.
"He feels pity for the slaves, realizing he is in the same position as they: all of them are on the ship against their will. He says, "I hated what I did [playing the fife]. I tried to comfort myself with the thought that, at least, it gave them time out...
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of the hold. But what was the point of that or anything else?"
Another theme is the Hypocrisy of the people in Jessie's life. His upbringing is very religious and the captain of the slave ship claims to be "God fearing" and religious, yet, he is in the business of selling human beings and responsible for the spread of slavery.
"Captain Cawthorne, who is in charge of the slave ship, mentions in the same breath that the slave trade is both "lucrative and God-given," and the sailors justify it by saying that everyone else is doing it."
What is the author's purpose and tone in The Slave Dancer?
The Slave Dancer is a novel written by Paula Fox. In this novel, a young boy named Jessie is kidnapped and spends time traveling to West Africa on a slave ship. In order to write a realistic account of what life was life on a slave ship, Fox conducted research so that she could portray an accurate account through Jessie's eyes.
It is likely that Fox's purpose for this novel was to present an accurate and historical account of life on a slave ship. She wanted to show the effects of slavery during this time. Another main purpose of this novel is to teach about slavery and to present the debates that occurred during this time period about ending slavery.
The mood or tone of this book is one of darkness. Jessie experiences many devastating things—such as poverty and cruelty. He struggles throughout the entire novel because of the horror he sees while on the slave ship. Jessie even hates the sound of music because it reminds him of his experiences. The tone of this novel warns of the sadness and destruction that slavery can cause.
What is the author's purpose in writing The Slave Dancer?
The author of The Slave Dancer, Paula Fox, seeks to inform her readers of what are often the grim realities of the human condition rather than continue some of the myths which have been perpetuated. In Horn Book, Alice Bach describes The Slave Dancer as "one of the finest examples of a writer's control over her material" and her "uncompromising integrity," as one who does not voice the conventional perspectives. For, Bach contends, the young readers of Paula Fox's work know that
Life is part grit, part disappointment, part nonsense, and occasionally victory ... And by offering children no more than the humanness we all share—child, adult, reader, writer—she acknowledges them as equals.
Through her portrayal of thirteen-year-old Jessie Bollier who works on a slave ship and "dances" the slaves for the short period that they are allowed on deck for some exercise and fresh air from the filthy hold where they are kept. It is Jessie's task to clean up, too. From their reading these and other sordid details of the slave trade, readers experience a revulsion for the inhumanity of man toward his fellow creatures. And, thus, Paula Fox has taught her young readers better than those who would hide or mollify such historical facts.“You'll see some bad things, but if you didn't see them, they'd still be happening," writes Fox herself.