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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Copper Sun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery, Dehumanization, and Resistance
Horror vs. Beauty
Friendship
Memory and Storytelling
Gender, Race, and Power
Summary
Analysis
Polly doesn’t like Black people—she thinks that they’re ugly, that they talk funny, and that they smell bad. They also make it difficult for “regular folks” like her to find work, since they work for free. Polly unrolls her certificate of indenture; proud that she’s able to read, she reads it once more. The certificate says that King George II, in 1738, sets 15-year-old Polly’s indenture to Mr. Percival Derby for 14 years. Polly frowns. Indentures are normally seven years, but since Polly has to pay off her parents’ debts too, she had to sign up for a double indenture. She looks back to the auction, where the slave women wail. Polly snorts; this has to be better than the jungle these slaves came from.
Polly is an indentured servant, meaning that she voluntarily entered into a contract to work for a certain amount of time—after her servitude is up, she’ll be free to integrate into white society. Her thoughts on Black people are influenced by the fact that she’s white and impoverished as a member of the servant class. As she sees it, no one in their right mind would willingly pay someone like her to work when they can get Black people to work for free; her own racism keeps her from empathizing with the Black slaves who are forced to work for free. Even though Polly is an indentured servant, she still believes that she’s better than the slaves because she’s white. Her race allows her to be treated like a person—like she belongs among “regular folks.”
Themes
As the auctioneer invites buyers to “inspect the merchandise,” a rotund white man hurries onto the riser and approaches the youngest woman, who’s about Polly’s age. He puts his fingers in her mouth, runs his hands down her legs, and offers 10 pounds for her. Polly doesn’t feel sorry for the girl, but the man is repulsive. The bidding begins, and finally, Mr. Derby purchases the girl for 60 pounds. Polly shrugs. She hopes he’ll send this girl to the fields. The auctioneer offers Mr. Derby the girl’s mother, but Mr. Derby refuses. He insists that “family ties only confuse the poor creatures” and tries to lead his purchase away.
The young woman is presumably Amari—and her mother is likely Afi. The fact that the auctioneer refers to Afi as Amari’s mother suggests that the white men don’t acknowledge or understand the power of friendship to bind people together. Despite this, Mr. Derby’s insistence that family ties “confuse” slaves suggests that he actually understands how meaningful family ties can be. They’re not confusing; they simply give slaves another person who loves them and can help them remember that they’re human. But the fact that the auctioneer refers to the slaves as “merchandise” to be inspected further strips them of their humanity.
Themes
The girl, however, goes wild. Polly wonders if African people have feelings and actual thoughts. She remembers playing with slave children when she was little, though her father discouraged her from doing so. Her mother insisted that Polly was going to grow up to be a fine lady, so she needed to leave the slave children alone and learn to read. Polly returns her attention to the present and notices that the slave girl is crying real tears. Mr. Derby pulls the girl from the stage, forces her into the wagon, and goes to pay for her. Polly is annoyed when the slave girl won’t stop crying.
Polly’s memory of playing with Black slave children when she was little is an indication that prejudice and racism are learned, not innate. Polly probably didn’t think horribly about her childhood friends—but her father taught her to be racist as he encouraged her to disassociate with them. As a young child, then, Polly followed the advice of Amari’s mother to not judge people by their looks—a mindset that the book suggests comes naturally when a person is still innocent.
Themes
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