![]() ![]() ![]() This quote, which Abronoma says to Esi, seems to foreshadow the rest of the book, but eventually becomes ironic. They are like a woman and her reflection, doomed to stay on opposite sides of the pond." Abronoma, p.45 And in my village we have a saying about separated sisters. "You are not your mother’s first daughter. Maame teaches her daughter that slaveholders are the weak ones, which is part of what gives Esi strength when she is taken to the Cape Coast Castle by slavers and eventually must work on plantations in the United States. When Esi, Maame's daughter says that the village would think her father was weak if they didn't beat their slave girl Abronoma, Maame counters with this view about slavery, even though she has not yet admitted to Esi that she herself had been a slave earlier in life. Slavery is a motif that runs throughout the story, from Maame's experience both owning and being a slave to her descendants' experiences on the Gold Coast and in the United States. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves." Maame, p.44 "Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |