Previous
Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Babel, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonization and Racism
Language, Translation, and Power
Race, Gender, and Intersectionality
Violence and Nonviolence
Complicity
Summary
Analysis
The rest of the term passes uneventfully. The summer is a shortened term. During the third year, Robin and his cohort all become extremely busy as they start on independent research projects. Robin and Letty are happy with their projects and advisors, but Ramy and Victoire aren’t. Victoire in particular is upset that her advisor wants to translate Kreyòl texts related to Vodou. Victoire says the texts are sacred and shouldn’t be translated for Babel’s purposes. Letty asks Victoire why she cares so much, considering that Victoire was raised in France. Letty then makes a racist remark about Haiti. That opens up a rift between Letty and Victoire. The bonds of cohort in general continue to fray as the term continues.
Victoire’s independent research project shows the racism that she faces at Oxford isn’t limited to other students but also comes directly from professors. That professor’s racism then severely limits what Victoire can study at Babel. Notably, Letty’s response to Victoire’s experience of virulent racism is to minimize and downplay that racism before she (Letty) herself acts in a racist way. That shows that the culture of Oxford is saturated in racism and also that Letty’s Whiteness, and the privilege that comes along with it, prevents her from taking seriously the racism and discrimination that others face.
Themes
For his independent study project, Robin works with his advisor, Professor Chakravarti, to make a list of loanwords from Sanskrit to Chinese. He and Professor Chakravarti also do the upkeep of silver bars to help bring in money to Babel. In the process, Chakravarti tells Robin more details about silver-work. At one point, a silver bar seems to have lost its “resonance link,” meaning that it’s lost its connection to high-powered bars stored at Babel. Chakravarti then takes Robin to a locked room and shows him those high-powered bars.
Robin’s work doing upkeep of silver bars shows how he continues to become more involved in silver-work, thereby becoming more directly complicit in Babel’s crimes. Professor Chakravarti also continues to treat Robin like a colleague, rather than just a student, as he invites Robin to help him with his work and shows Robin the ins and outs of silver-work.
Themes
In the middle of January, on their way to classes, Robin, Letty, Victoire, and Ramy see upperclassmen and graduate fellows wearing black under their robes. Someone tells them that it’s for Anthony. They ask Professor Playfair what happened, and Playfair says that Anthony went missing during a research expedition to Barbados over the summer. Playfair relays the news without any apparent emotion. Robin, Letty, and Ramy are surprised that so little attention is paid to Anthony’s disappearance. It makes them feel like they are expendable. Letty asks Victoire if she is okay, as she was the closest to Anthony out of all of them, but Victoire looks surprisingly unconcerned. Over the term, Robin never sees her cry.
Playfair’s lack of feeling regarding Anthony’s disappearance reinforces the idea that Babel is exploiting students of color for its own gain rather than treating them as full people worthy of consideration. If Playfair and the rest of the Babel faculty truly cared about Anthony as a person, then they would either try harder to find him or acknowledge the grief that his disappearance causes. Instead, in response to Anthony’s disappearance, the faculty appears to do nothing. Victoire’s lack of apparent emotion, though, seems to tell a different story. At this point, it remains a mystery why she is not upset, but the novel will later address that question.
Themes
