Memory

Whitechapel’s greatest battle is ultimately against his own memory. He feels he has lived too long, seen too much and that memory is simply pain resurfacing. He aims to bury memory. He likens memory to crying, an event that he describes as being able to take over, shake and thump the body. Memory has taken a toll on Whitechapel’s body. His eyes have seen too much and his head is too heavy; he craves rest. Memories of Africa, the land of his childhood, are deliberately discarded and discouraged in others who seek to focus on them.

The destructive element of memories is seen in Sanders Senior as memories of his wife drive him into depression and despair, leading to his despicable behaviour in raping Cook.

Memory impacts the present, tormenting the protagonists. Each have their own painful memories: death of immediate loved ones, injustices to themselves and those around them. The novel depicts the idea of collective memory as passing from generation to generation, like stories with individual memories, value-laden and having an impact on the next generation.

Memory Quotes

Memory hurts. Like crying. But still and deep. Memory rises to the skin then I can’t be touched .… Don’t make me remember. I forget as hard as I can. (Whitechapel) Prologue: Remembering

Memory is pain trying to resurrect itself. (Whitechapel) Epilogue: Forgetting

Grief

Silent grief shapes Whitechapel’s face until he is known as ‘sour face’. He can’t remember when he last laughed. The grief that he suffers from the loss of his wives and his children has taken a toll. Communally, the slaves are impacted by grief; ‘the night was torn apart by their grief’ when Chapel is receiving his lashes. The grieving is expressed simultaneously for the individual as much as the situation. Grief as lashes tear at a boy’s skin and grief at the oppression and disparate power structures that continue to allow it.

After Chapel’s death, grief takes over Whitechapel. Halfway through the lashings the boy is gone and Whitechapel’s spirit too has surrendered. The only relief from grief will be death, something for which Whitechapel longs. There is no mention of Lydia’s grief after the death of her friend, Chapel. Her grief and that of Sanders Senior’s, after the death of his wife, are confined to their individual loss.

Individual and collective grief, as it is explored in The Longest Memory, demonstrates the cumulative factor to grief: years of individual grief and generational grief taking their toll physically, emotionally and culturally. Furthermore, the novel emphasises that while grief is a shared human experience, the effects of power imbalance, racism and cruelty can compound grief.

Grief Quotes

They begged and cried. The night was torn apart by their grief. (About the slaves) Chapter 1

Too much has happened to put right. I would need another life. (Whitechapel) Epilogue: Forgetting

The eyes see their own death and do not flicker. The mouth tastes death and does not move. (Whitechapel) Epilogue: Forgetting

Equality

Equality in The longest Memory is not just about freedom, it is about having the same status, rights and permissions as any other group. The very fundamentals of slavery and the racist pillars that support the ideology ensure that no slave receives an ounce of equality. The general view is that Africans are an inferior race and that any quality or skill shown is through them mimicking their overseers and owners.

Whitechapel finds that even having knowledge of his son’s whereabouts frustrates the plantation owner as it is perceived as a sign that he might be equal. When a young Sanders Junior questions equality, declaring that Whitechapel can tie a knot that his father cannot, it is treated as a joke. Lydia and Chapel are idealistic in their view that Chapel may be equal, spurred on by his success in reading.

The key to equality lays hidden in education which is usually forbidden for slaves. Lydia pursues her quest for equality and writes to The Virginian but finds an attitude that is congruent with the majority of society, completely contrasting her own. The only glimmer of hope comes from Mr Whitechapel, who sees that equality may be reached in the future however he does little to implement it despite his leniency when dealing with slaves.

D’Aguiar presents a world so historically entrenched in inequality that it shows little hope for equality. The exceptions seem to come from individuals, such as Lydia and, to a lesser degree, Mr Whitechapel. Cook is bolstered by seeing Chapel read and refrains from telling her husband in hope that it may lead to equality.

Equality Quotes

Africans may be our inferiors, but they exhibit the same qualities we possess, even if they are merely imitating us. (Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 2

‘There is no sight so perfidious than that of a white woman and a black man.’ (Editor, The Virginian) Chapter 11

Family relationships

The importance of family, including generational differences, are explored in The Longest Memory. Young children laughing and playing, a teen running from a beating, other teens fleeing and facing a death penalty, and older slaves weary but avuncular toward the younger generations, are described.

Family is a refuge for the slaves. Cook sees her family situation after marrying Whitechapel as having saved her and compares it with the family situation in the main house. Through her description of two pots we see that family and love are not exclusively reserved for the wealthy or white.

The importance of family is demonstrated through its best wishes for the younger generation. Whitechapel seeks to instruct Chapel about the need to conform, to survive. Sanders Senior announces that Sanders Junior will not be an overseer, hoping for something better. Cook does not inform on Chapel and Lydia’s lessons hoping Chapel will be better off than the previous generation.

Family pressure is applied in the form of restrictions regarding slaves and expectations regarding women at the time. The young rebel Lydia seeks time with Chapel, shunning the clear expectations of her family to passively accept her place in society as a young white woman. Chapel rebels, fueled by grief over his mother’s death and love for Lydia, shrugging off Whitechapel’s advice and fleeing the plantation.

Family is the last bastion of equality and often the only refuge in oppressive circumstances. The relationships are often fragile but usually kind and well-meaning. The bonds are strong and hold families together in the midst of trying circumstances. The importance of family is emphasised by the oppression coming from without. Family becomes a source of survival for individuals and a place for culture to flourish.

Family Relationship Quotes

All my life two pots are never empty. One is in the master’s kitchen the other in my own …. Yet my pot is sweeter to me. Sweet to me because I take from it and fill two plates for the people I love … (Cook) Chapter 8

Of love that she did these things and I loved, her back as much as a pest can, who strove to emulate the kindness and love he’s shown. (Chapel about his mother and Whitechapel) Chapter 5

Education

The Longest Memory shows us that equality can be achieved through learning. Chapel and Lydia overcome their differences through mutual learning, reading and sharing. The fact that Chapel can learn also inspires Cook when she sees the potential for Chapel to be like Lydia.

The prohibition on education for slaves is a sign of the oppressors’ understanding that education liberates and inspires. Sanders Junior questions whether Whitechapel can truly be inferior if he can tie a knot that his own father Sanders Senior has not learnt to tie. It is dismissed as a joke when Sanders Senior instead focuses on Junior’s statement that whites were ‘bright’.

Vital to the survival of the oppressed, education becomes a beacon of equality and hope. Cultural continuity through storytelling preserves culture and provides a chance to take one’s place in society.

A necessary part of education is that it holds the gates to the past, and thus its painful memories. Whitechapel attempts to close this door to his children, to not pass on his knowledge about Africa, inadvertently contributing to the goal of the oppressor.

Education Quotes

She called a book and moved my finger over, the words as she sang them: I heard a choir. (Chapel) Chapter 5

I can’t even mention the fact that I heard him with my own ears … poring over a book. … all I feel inside is pride. (Cook) Chapter 8

Power and Resistance

Set in an era of the slavery system, The Longest Memory depicts widespread abuses of power. Unwarranted lashes and beatings with sticks are commonplace, rape is seemingly tolerated with a mere fine being the only consequence, and the ultimate in exploitation of power, the power to buy and sell human life.

In order to oversee their slaves, many masters resort to various kinds of punishment aimed at discouraging rebellion or escape. Mr Whitechapel argues for demonstrating some kindness and respect to slaves but his participation in an inherently violent system makes him just as complicit as his hardhearted colleagues.

The response to this power is crudely divided into those who learn from the whip and those who do not. Whitechapel categorises slaves into those who must experience everything personally before coming to an understanding of their place and those who learn by watching the cycle of power and resistance. Whitechapel has submitted to the powers controlling his life and has survived. He subsequently advocates that others, especially Chapel, do the same in order to avoid the consequences of resistance. It is not a concession that the Africans are deserving of punishment but a realisation that they have no power to change the situation.

However, Whitechapel does take part in small acts of confrontation, exposing his belief that he has acquired capital through his submission. He employs this capital when Chapel has run away to gain leniency and resists Chapel’s punishment upon his capture. These acts show that he is willing, within certain boundaries, to defend his freedom but the outcome suggests that he was wrong in his beliefs.

The text presents abuse of power based on race. Such abuse can be physical or emotional, it can be perpetrated individually or systemically, it can take possession of lives and culture.

The novel highlights incidences of resistance. Fleeing oppression is one option, although the results of loss of life or connection to family and culture are a steep price to pay. Speaking up against oppression individually or in groups is hazardous. Whitechapel’s resistance on the night of the lashings earns him a fist to the face.

Survival mechanisms, as seen in Whitechapel’s submission, a path of least resistance, become an effective tool to surviving.

Power and Resistance Quotes

The whip ate into him but like all gluttons who have gorged themselves to their fill, it bit and chewed without swallowing and simply bit and chewed some more. (Whitechapel describes Chapel’s lashing) Chapter 1

There are two types of slave: the slave who must experience everything for himself before coming to an understanding… the second is brighter, lives longer. (Whitechapel) Chapter 1

Freedom

The Longest Memory has at its core the question of freedom. Whitechapel, born a slave to a slave, fathers children and grandchildren who are slaves. The value of freedom has not been a birth choice for the slaves. Whitechapel seeks freedom by conforming to the oppressor in this life and waiting for freedom in the next. He trades freedom for safety. Other slaves seize opportunities to seek freedom by running away, like Chapel.

By not pursuing freedom and discouraging others to do so, Whitechapel inadvertently becomes a tool of the oppressor. His willingness to betray his son’s whereabouts to bring him back to servitude is not well received by the others. Those that seek freedom are more likely to inspire the other slaves.

Ultimately, Whitechapel finds some freedom by discarding his name and divorcing himself from any emotion. Sanders Senior has restricted freedom as an indentured workhand. He is subject to arbitrary fines from the plantation owner and forced to marry against his will. While nowhere near the same restrictions as slaves, poorer whites and females also have some restrictions.

The Longest Memory maintains the complex narrative that freedom can be taken from a group or an individual. It shows the reaction to lack of freedom can be resistance but in many cases it is a long subservient fight that ends in grief.

Freedom Quotes

Father, I am running. I feel joy; not fear. (Chapel) Chapter 5

I fly through the air and land in a place I know is Africa. The first thing I do is kiss the ground. (Great granddaughter) Chapter 12

Hope

In The Longest Memory, hope is largely confined to the younger characters. Young slaves dream of Africa despite having never been there, hoping to be reunited with a lost place and culture, despite being discouraged by the older slave Whitechapel. The young hope for better days, as seen in Chapel’s fleeing to a new life in the North. Lydia holds hope in a future where slaves may be freed and paid to work. She expresses this view to The Virginian and initially receives encouragement as someone who demonstrates intelligence and certain advantages that go with being young, namely an unmitigated idealism.

The author delivers vivid descriptions of the hardship and bleak circumstances of slavery and colonisation, of oppression and racism, which are subversive to hope. The hope that black and white people can walk together, a hope encouraged by the relationship Lydia develops with Chapel and his success in learning, is subsequently dashed by the editor of The Virginian as a heinous thought.

Overall, the novel presents hope as a continuing force. Hope is depicted as surviving through family, through maintaining cultural ties in storytelling. Hope is placed in individuals who may not have power and position but who can still make changes, seen in Cook and Lydia’s belief in Chapel.

Hope Quotes

I was asked if slavery would ever come to an end …. In reply to the affirmative I said the world was changing rapidly. 150 years of slavery was a long time. (Editor, The Virginian) Chapter 11

He said it might be possible in the future. I look up at him and, as if to dash my hopes of a future when Chapel and I could sit and read together, he adds, maybe in the next century. (Lydia with Mr Whitechapel) Chapter 9