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Part 3, Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Speech, Performance, and Willful Ignorance
Identity, Narrative, and Agency
Racism, Dehumanization, and Hypocrisy
Innocence vs. Disillusionment
Family, Alliance, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
James walks quickly in the direction of Edina. He encounters a Black man in a cornfield who tells him the Graham farm is a breeding farm. The man and his wife feed James before he sets off again. Reaching Edina, he finds four slaves shackled to a post near the slave quarters. They are chained up like animals to promote animalistic breeding. James frees the men and asks after Lizzie and Sadie. He invites them to either run or help him retrieve his family from the women’s camp. The men find his lack of plan crazy, but James has no time. He introduces himself as James, and the other men state their names before joining him.
The kindness shown by the Black couple demonstrates how solidarity between people in similar circumstances is key for surviving an oppressive world. The way the enslaved men have been chained like animals supports the enslaver’s dehumanizing perceptions of Black people and encourages them to think of themselves in similar terms. James respects the men’s ability to exercise agency and choose their own path. In joining his cause, the men exhibit the powerful camaraderie that exists between people who have experienced oppression in similar ways.
Themes
