The Longest Memory shows how the unfairness of bondage can pin down both the slaves and their proprietors in a web of inhuman treatment. devastation of relationships and decease. This is indicated by the assorted different characters in the narrative and their diverse points of position. viz. . the black slaves. Whitechapel. Cook and Chapel to their white capturers Mr. Whitechapel. Sanders Senior and Junior. and Lydia. Throughout the novel. there is a uninterrupted subject that the black slaves are bound and are unable to get away and prosecute their dreams.
The slaves on the Southern Virginian plantation were treated otherwise from the remainder of the society. merely because they were black. As Sanders Senior asserts. ” we are different from slaves in intelligence and human standing before God” . The white captor’s beliefs gave them adequate ground to handle the black slaves without any regard. as so. black slaves were destined for debasement of society. and were non given any individuality or rights. They were beaten. whipped and made to digest anguishs such as when an proprietor “tried to hit an apple from the caput of the slave at some 20 paces” . and if the slave tried to run off. he would be shot.
Bondage was besides internalised. which meant that the slaves were wholly owned and controlled by the plantation proprietors. At one point. Whitechapel provinces that “freedom is death” . and this is exemplified through Chapel’s decease. when he attempts to get away the plantation to prosecute his love for Lydia.
Slaves were non even allowed to hold proper names. and were given names in conformity to their occupation in the plantation. such as ‘Cook’ . Besides Whitechapel was named after his proprietor Mr. Whitechapel. This farther shows the loss of individuality the black slaves experienced. Furthermore. the black slaves were unable to go any higher in society. This was shown when Chapel learns how to read and compose. with the aid of Lydia. Chapel tells Lydia. that she has “done him the gravest injustice” as he likely can non utilize these accomplishments for anything.
Even love can non get the better of the trapped and forced nature of the system. Lydia and Chapel fell profoundly in love. in the novel. but could non to the full develop their relationship because of the limitations of the white people. and their value on fond regard with inkinesss.
White people are besides held confined by the running slaver. As Mr Whitechapel comments to Sanders Junior. “what began as a individual yarn has. over the coevalss. woven itself into a colossal rug that can non be unwoven. This is true for both the slave and their proprietors. Drum sanders Senior’ who was the superintendent hopes that his boy will non go one every bit good. but unluckily his dream is non realised and Sanders Junior excessively become the superintendent. Mr. Whitechapel besides struggles as a plantation proprietor. as he is in a quandary ah he sees himself as a faithful Christian and a good adult male.
He is split between being just and merely in handling the slaves. to conforming them with the other plantation proprietors who mock him with shots like “Here is the adult male with the whip in his manus. Three cheers. Hip Hip…Hooray! Well done! ” after Chapel’s decease because of the tanning. Furthermore. go forthing the plantation is non an option for him. because it might travel to destroy if he is non at that place. and people might believe he is a also-ran and can non confront world.
The Longest Memory explores how both capturers and prisoners can be shackled by the running of a system like bondage. As the novel concludes. with the thought that slavery enslaves everybody that is involved with it. because both maestro and break one’s back become dehumanized by it. Therefore. this cold system. should be forgotten. as “memory is pain seeking to raise itself. ”
