Identity, Memory, and Family Theme Analysis

When readers first meet 13-year-old Isabel, she feels unmoored and alone without family members to guide her. Though she has her five-year-old sister, Ruth, to care for, the girls lost Momma a year ago to smallpox, and Poppa four years before that when he was murdered at a slave auction. And Isabel’s sense of her own identity is shaken again when, after her owner dies, Isabel isn’t freed as her owner stipulated in her will. Instead, Isabel is sold to a wealthy New York couple, who rename her Sal and eventually sell Ruth. In order to mentally and emotionally protect herself, Isabel tries to forget about Ruth and her other family members. But as Madam Lockton becomes progressively crueler to Isabel, Isabel discovers it’s actually comforting to remember Momma, Poppa, and Ruth—and to use their advice as she starts to think about her burgeoning adult identity. Through Isabel’s process of coming of age, Chains suggests that a person’s identity forms not just as they decide who they want to be, but as they remember their family members and those loved ones’ wisdom and advice. 

Chains shows how the institution of slavery fractured Black families, making it difficult—if not impossible—for enslaved Black people to retain connections to their ancestors. And being unable to connect with her ancestors hinders Isabel’s coming of age. Early in the novel, Isabel notes that according to Momma, ghosts can’t cross bodies of water—and this means that if a descendant travels far away from an ancestor’s burial site, the ancestors’ ghosts aren’t able to spiritually protect their living descendants. So when Poppa, for instance, was kidnapped in Africa and forcibly brought to the Colonies, his ancestors weren’t able to follow and protect him, thereby leaving him vulnerable to the horrors of slavery. Momma’s story shows how slavery then continued to fracture families in North America, as her ancestors were abducted in Africa and sold in the Caribbean islands—and Momma herself was then sold to someone in Rhode Island. This means that Momma has ancestors in Africa and in the Caribbean, none of whom can protect her. So, especially when Isabel and Ruth are sold to the Locktons, who live in New York, Isabel feels lost: she has to leave Momma and Poppa’s burial sites in Rhode Island, so she fears that she’ll entirely lose her parents’ protection. Moreover, without a parent to guide her, Isabel is forced to step into an adult, caregiver role for Ruth. And yet, Isabel is still a naïve, innocent child, and in many ways her emotional development is stunted due to the trauma of being enslaved. So, Isabel is unable to be a child—but she’s also unable to truly function as an adult, either.

To protect herself from the trauma of losing her parents (and, eventually, losing Ruth), Isabel tries to forget her family. Though Isabel is distraught to be leaving Momma and Poppa behind in Rhode Island, she also doesn’t see much of a point in dwelling on it—she has bigger things to think about, like keeping Ruth safe from Madam’s ire. So at first, Isabel’s attempts to try to forget her parents are merely practical: if she’s too busy grieving Momma, she reasons, she won’t have the mental and emotional energy to make sure that Ruth is safe and cared for. When Madam sells Ruth, though, Isabel’s commitment to forgetting starts to eat away at her and causes her to mentally shut down. Isabel blames herself for failing to protect Ruth, so in addition to her emotions about Ruth’s absence more broadly, Isabel also believes she wasn’t adult or competent enough to protect her little sister. So Isabel goes out of her way to forget Ruth and to forget what she perceives as her own failure—she feels like a swarm of angry bees have taken up residence in her brain and body, making it impossible for her to think of anything aside from her household tasks, let alone grieve. As Isabel turns inward, tries not to think of her family, and focuses on her chores, Isabel also stops hoping for a happier future, as that seems impossible with Ruth gone. So as a result of so much trauma (Isabel has also been beaten, branded, and imprisoned since Ruth was sold), Isabel’s spirit is broken, and she essentially stops developing. She reasons that it’s not worth it to hope for freedom, which is what Momma wanted her to do—so trying to forget her family also traps Isabel more fully in slavery as well. 

Ultimately, though, Isabel realizes the way forward—the way to heal, and the way to come of age—is to remember her family and to take their advice to heart. Isabel starts to heal and feel more at peace with her life when, on Christmas, she recalls Momma’s advice to “keep Christmas,” or to not forget that Christmas is, to Momma and Isabel, about performing acts of service for others. Isabel bakes a bread pudding, just like Momma used to, and gives it to a houseless family in the city. Also, though Isabel burns with the desire to somehow take revenge on Madam for selling Ruth and abusing her so cruelly, Isabel decides to listen to Momma’s wisdom and take the high road, choosing kindness whenever she can. Remembering Momma, and remembering her advice to be kind, generous, and protect her family, culminates in Isabel deciding to run away from the Locktons to rescue Ruth (Madam reveals that she never actually sold Ruth; she’s on the Lockton estate in Charleston). And as Isabel enters the upstairs drawing room to gather a map and a pass so she can escape, she sees herself in the mirror for the first time in a long time—and realizes that in her reflection, she can pick out features from both Momma and Poppa. But she also realizes that her face is entirely her own. Isabel then decides to take inspiration from Poppa’s facial scars, which he earned in a traditional ceremony and signified that he’s transformed from boy to man. She decides that the I branded on her cheek stands for Isabel, not “insolent”—and that just as Poppa’s scars signified his adulthood, her I is something beautiful that marks her as an adult. In this way, Isabel is finally able to make some of her parents’ traditions her own and use them to develop her own totally unique identity, which culminates in Isabel giving herself a new last name: Gardener. With this, Isabel symbolically comes of age as she figures out how to connect to her ancestors—and with their help, she finds the strength to look forward to the rest of her own life.