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Chapter 20
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 has her sights set on working in the big house—Amari is adjusting, and Teenie doesn’t need the help. Teenie keeps Polly busy with menial labor that Polly thinks is suitable for slaves, not white people. Derbyshire Farms is a rice plantation; one afternoon, Polly asks if Mr. Derby’s wealth comes from the rice. Teenie doesn’t know, but she says that Mr. Derby buys male slaves from Africa for the rice fields every year. She explains that the men work rice in Africa, and they’re the brains behind the rice operation here. Polly wonders out loud if she could help Mr. Derby keep his books, but Teenie snorts and sends the girls with water and food for Cato and the other field slaves. Polly groans; this is another duty fit for only a slave. Teenie sends Tidbit too, but she warns him to stay out of the water.
Though it may not be out of the realm of possibility for Polly to move up to serving in the house, her desire to serve Mr. Derby by keeping books speaks to how naïve she still is about how wealthy white men like him operate. This may also possibly suggest that as racist as her own father was, he was surprisingly progressive when it came to women’s roles, given that Polly has no idea that her literacy might not go over so well with other white men. Polly’s insistence that delivering food to Cato is a slave’s job also shows that even as her relationship with Amari is improving, she still believes she’s better than Black people simply because she’s white.
Themes
Tidbit laughs, slithers like a snake, and runs ahead with Hushpuppy. Polly has never been so far from the big house, and she’s amazed when she sees the rice fields. About two-dozen slaves stand in knee-deep mud, bent over rice plants. They sweat and move joylessly. Polly wonders how people can live like this. A skinny old slave on the bank of the river, Cato, greets Tidbit and cracks jokes. Polly knows that Cato is old; he knows everything but does minimal work. He suggests that Polly will start sewing for Mrs. Derby soon, while Amari will be in the rice fields as soon as Clay gets tired of her. Amari moans.
It’s important that up to this point, Polly has never seen the rice fields—so it’s likely that she has no idea what working in them entails. It’s telling, then, that she’s so shocked by what they look like and how joyless and beaten-down the slaves are. Cato’s assessment of where Polly and Amari will end up reinforces that within the colonial system, Polly has significantly more privilege and agency than Amari—her work will be comparatively cushy and far less dangerous.
Themes
Tidbit asks if anyone ever goes back to Africa. Cato, serious, says that they don’t, but in the rice fields it doesn’t matter—everyone dies in five years. Polly is shocked. Cato explains that the rice slaves toil in the hot sun and must contend with mosquitos, flies, malaria, pneumonia, and snakes. Women have stillbirths, or their babies die young. Cato scolds Tidbit, who got too close to the water, and says that tiny rice seeds are planted one at a time. The work goes on forever. Amari will soon do it, and Tidbit will do it too when he’s older. Polly is horrified that Tidbit will be in the rice fields one day. Cato just advises Amari to make herself useful to Clay as long as she can.
Cato makes it abundantly clear that life in the rice fields is nothing but horror—it’s dehumanizing and will inevitably kill any person who is forced to cultivate rice. Polly’s shock stems from the fact that for the first time, she has to face the prospect of people she’s close to performing this backbreaking work. Before, slaves were just a faceless, homogenous group that she didn’t have to care about. But, however, slaves in Polly’s mind have faces, names, and histories—they’re her friends.
Themes
Suddenly, one of the slaves in the rice field screams. Cato rushes to the sound, and Polly, Amari, and Tidbit follow. A man, Jacob, hauls his wife, Hildy, out of the field—a snake bit her. Several women wrap the wound in strips of cloth as Hildy calls out and goes still. Cato says that she’ll be dead by sunset. Hildy will be second copperhead death this season. Two others died of malaria, one person was bitten by an alligator, and another drowned. He tells Amari to do whatever she needs to do to stay out of the fields. As the girls and Tidbit head back to the kitchen, Polly hears the other slaves being called back to work.
As quickly as the slaves move to help Hildy out of the field, it’s telling that no one seems particularly surprised that a snake bit her. The dehumanizing nature of life in the rice fields means that it’s expected that people will die with shocking regularity. Most horrifically, Jacob and the other slaves cannot even sit with Hildy and comfort her in her last hours. They might be punished for doing so, and there’s nothing they can do to help her given how little the white people who oversee them care.
Themes
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