Homegoing is a very interesting novel authored by the American-Ghanaian author Yaa Gyasi och published in. The story is a fictional historical novel about two half-sisters who had different paths in life. While the first sister marries a wealthy and white man who was the British governor, the other sister is enslaved. The book portrays the history of slaving in Africa and the experiences of African and African-American people in this context.
The Main Character of Homegoing
Homegoing is developed by several characters who play a main role in several events in the story. However, the main characters whose fate is the main reason for all events that happen later in the story to the seven generations that the story describes are the two half-sisters, Effia and Esi.
Esi is the daughter of Maame and Big Man after Maame ran away and she is Effia’s half-sister from Maame’s side. However, the fact of their biological relationship is something that they are unaware of. Yet, fate chose a different path for Esi than Effia’s path in life. Esi is illustrated in the book as a person who believes in the violent way the Big Man treated Abronoma. She was not that compassionate nor did she care about Abronoma’s situation which can be illustrated in the following quote that describes the event when Big Man beat Little Dove and Esi believed that he did the right thing to show his strength while Maame tries to correct her view on the matter:
“That I should live to hear my own daughter speak like this. You want to know what weakness is? Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.” (p. 38)
However, this view on humans and slaves is to change for Esi who becomes more compassionate and shows more emotions towards Little Dove who just has been beaten by Big Man.
Yet, Esi lives to face the same fate of enslavement and she is kidnapped and taken into the dungeons of the castle where she experiences how it is to be a slave. She got raped and treated as a slave to be sold then as a slave. All this happened where her half-sister Effia lives at Cape Coast Castle.
Esi still has some faith in people while her first period in the dungeons of the castle but eventually she loses this faith when she experiences rape or other ways of treating slaves before they are sold. She realizes with time that she can trust no other people and even a smile can mean nothing.
“When he had finished, he looked horrified, disgusted with her. As though he were the one who had had something taken from him. As though he were the one who had been violated.” (p. 47)
The Main Theme of The Story
Homegoing is developed upon several themes which are illustrated in different ways and to an extent are interconnected with each other to make the story. However, the main theme of the book is about colonization and the horror that black people experienced during this period. This theme about colonization and its effects is illustrated from the very beginning of the story when the author describes two biological sisters who end up on different edges of this phenomenon. That is, Effia becomes the wife of the British governor while Esi ends up as a slave sold from the dungeon at the same Castle where her half-sister lives. Not only the contradictory fate of the two half-sisters can illustrate the matter even later in the book. For example when James hears his father and his friend discussing the end of slavery but his reaction was that slavery would not end but rather transforms into new shapes that still would oppress black people.
“They would just trade one type of shackles for another, trade physical ones that wrapped around wrists and ankles for the invisible ones that wrapped around the mind.” (p. 88)
The issue of colonization and slavery affected not only Effie’s and Esi’s lives but even seven generations after them. The trauma is even illustrated in the book in connection to the theme which is about colonization. The story illustrates several generations who struggle to come out and defeat this fate that has its roots in history. That is, the trauma survives, lives, and impacts the fate of several generations later. Yet, the effects of colonization and slavery are still there even though the trade itself is prohibited or the phenomenon is abolished. The effects of historical trauma could survive for several generations which is an important message that the author delivers throughout the story
“You cannot stick a knife in a goat and then say, Now I will remove my knife slowly, so let things be easy and clean, let there be no mess. There will always be blood.” (p.87)
This quote illustrates the discussion of Quey’s discussion with David about the effects of slavery and how it impacts the long term. Quey uses therefore a metaphor to describe how slavery affected black people.
The Language of Homegoing
The language in the Homegoing is neither hard nor very simple. The author uses everyday language to describe the events and the characters in the story which is illustrated through the interactions among the characters in the book. However, the complicated structure of several generations and the unusual names makes it harder to understand everything from the first time. The use of everyday language is beneficial because the author describes in his story the life of normal people and everyday interactions between these characters and in everyday situations where racism and colonization still is there to impact the characters’ lives. This contributes to the overall reading experience.
“The bartender, a man with an almost imperceptible limp, poured Jo his drink before Jo could even ask for it, and set it down. The man sitting next to him was whipping out that morning’s paper, now crumpled, wet from the damp of the bar or the few slung drops of the man’s drink.” (p. 121)
This use of the language, that is everyday language, to describe the events and the different interactions in the story can be perceived as racism, slavery, and other correlated phenomena that were occurring in contexts of every day and still are here to impact. Furthermore, the language does not only illustrate racism or colonization and their effects in everyday context for black people but even it shows how the situation was in a historical context as the phenomenon was a part of the every day of each person in the colonized areas, in this book Ghana.