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Chapter 16
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
Robin hasn’t been back to China since he left as a child. As the ship approaches Canton, Robin is surprised to find that he feels empty. A representative from the company that Robin and his cohort will be translating for—Jardine, Matheson & Co.—meets them when the ship lands. His name is Mr. Baylis. He shows Robin and Ramy to their lodgings. He then shows Victoire and Letty to their lodgings. He apologizes to Victoire and Letty that where they’re staying is little more than a storage unit, but he says that they couldn’t let Victoire and Letty sleep too close to the gentlemen.
Robin’s emptiness when approaching Canton reflects the way that Lovell’s decision to take Robin out of China has severed Robin’s connection to his home country and culture. This passage again underlines the kind of sexism that Letty and Victoire face on a routine basis. Notably, Mr. Baylis frames that sexism as something that is best for everyone involved without acknowledging that it directly targets and disenfranchises Victoire and Letty.
Themes
Over dinner, Mr. Baylis talks about the plans for the upcoming negotiations and says that Robin will translate during those negotiations. He details the position the company is currently in. Namely, the Chinese government has begun to crack down on English imports of opium. Mr. Baylis and Jardine, Matheson & Co., as well as several other English companies, want to ensure that they can continue to bring opium to China unimpeded.
It’s again worth remembering that England has a considerable trade deficit with China, meaning that England is importing more goods from China than China is importing from England, which is leading China to grow wealthier while England loses money. The British companies’ desire to import opium to China can then be understood as an attempt to balance that deficit.
Themes
When Robin raises the question of whether the Chinese government might be right to prohibit a harmful substance from entering the country, Mr. Baylis downplays the risks of opium. He then says that if he had his way, every man, woman, and child in China would be addicted to opium. When Robin says that that’s cruel, Mr. Baylis makes racist remarks about Chinese people. Robin says that he is Chinese, and Mr. Baylis laughs and says that Robin isn’t Chinese. Professor Lovell watches the interaction and says nothing.
Mr. Baylis uses racism against Chinese people as grounds to act cruelly towards them. In his mind, Chinese people are less worthy of consideration and respect than White people, which means that he does not have to feel bad about exploiting Chinese people. His words and actions represent a pattern in the novel of White English people in power using racism to justify the violent exploitation and oppression of people in other countries.
Themes
The translations and negotiations begin the next morning. Robin accompanies Mr. Baylis, who treats the Chinese people he interacts with derisively. After a morning filled with translating, Robin goes with Ramy into Canton. Ramy asks if Robin knows where his old house is, and Robin decides to look for it. When he finds the street where it once was, the house is gone. Now, shops line the street. One of those shops is an opium den. Robin is curious. He goes into the opium den. A host offers him a pipe, and Robin takes a couple of puffs before Ramy drags him out.
While Robin says he wants to try opium because he is curious, the novel also implies that he is driven to act recklessly after spending the day translating for the virulently racist Mr. Baylis. In that sense, Robin is angry, frustrated, and upset because he is beginning to realize that by choosing Babel over the Hermes Society, he has chosen to become complicit in the racism, exploitation, and oppression that he abhors.
Themes
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As they walk back to where they are staying, Ramy says that once his guardian showed him the opium fields he invested in in India. Ramy says that the British have turned India into a “narco-military” state in order to send drugs to China. That’s how empire connects Ramy and Robin’s countries, Ramy says. Robin thinks that trade sounds abstract until one realizes one’s complicity in “colonial labour and colonial pain.” Robin and Ramy then talk about how they learned to look away from injustice, and their complicity in injustice, when studying at Babel. Robin thinks that Griffin is right to be angry. But he’s wrong to think he can do anything about it. The system is set in stone and is immovable, Robin thinks.
This passage begins to unpack some of the novel’s animating ideas about complicity and violence. As Ramy and Robin discuss, the British Empire uses military power to exploit and oppress people in countries like India and China for its own gain. Ramy and Robin are then complicit in that exploitation and oppression through their studies and work at Babel. The novel then implicitly asks what steps one would have to take to fight against the military power of the British Empire and limit its capacity to exploit and oppress others.
Themes
The next day, Robin goes to translate for Mr. Baylis again. They meet a man named Commissioner Lin. During the conversation, Mr. Baylis says that the Chinese government must give back or pay for any opium that they have seized, and that China must keep its borders open to the opium trade. Commissioner Lin tells Mr. Baylis that the English have outlawed opium, which is proof that they know that it’s harmful. He says that the emperor has signed a law that will soon go into effect in which any foreigner bringing opium into China will be decapitated. Mr. Baylis says if that happens, then England will defend its citizens as it sees fit. Robin is surprised by what Mr. Baylis says. It seems dangerously close to an open declaration of hostilities.
Mr. Baylis suggests that the British Empire is willing to use its military to force China to allow English companies to import opium into China. That statement, along with Baylis’s persistent racism, make it clear that the British Empire aims to use racism as grounds for exploiting and oppressing people in China. Commissioner Lin points out that the British Empire is willing to overlook laws prohibiting opium in England in order to try and use the substance to subjugate people in China, further underlining the hypocrisy, racism, and cruelty of the British Empire.
Themes
Commissioner Lin says that there’s nothing more to discuss at this point, but he asks to speak to Robin alone. When Robin and Commissioner Lin speak privately, Commissioner Lin asks if there is any reason to continue negotiations with Mr. Baylis and the English trading companies. Robin says that there isn’t. He says that the English don’t see the Chinese people as human and only want to exploit them. Commissioner Lin says that’s disappointing, considering the constant English speechifying about rights and dignity.
While Robin’s work translating for Mr. Baylis could make him complicit in the crimes of the British Empire and the companies Mr. Baylis represents, Robin counteracts that potential complicity by being honest with Commissioner Lin. Robin’s statement that the English don’t see Chinese people as human again underlines how the British Empire uses racism as grounds to colonize and exploit people from other countries.
Themes
Robin returns to where he is staying and sits with Ramy, Letty, and Victoire. Out the window, they see a large fire. When they look closer, they realize that it’s a controlled burn. A sweet scent reaches them. It’s the smell of opium, and they realize that Commissioner Lin is burning all of the opium that the government has confiscated from English companies. Professor Lovell and Mr. Baylis storm into the room. Professor Lovell grabs Robin by the collar and shakes him. He demands to know what Robin has done. Robin doesn’t respond. Professor Lovell tells the group to get their things and return to the ship. Plans have changed, he says, and they’re returning immediately to England.
This passage shows how Robin’s decision to work against Babel, Mr. Baylis, and Professor Lovell leads the Chinese government to act. While Robin previously espoused the belief that the British Empire was impossible to fight against, Commissioner Lin’s decision to burn the opium shows that Robin’s actions have the potential to cause change and shape history. That does not mean that the British Empire will crumble overnight, but it can be interpreted as a sign to Robin that the future is not set in stone and that some kind of change is possible.
Themes
