Homegoing

by

Yaa Gyasi

Ness Character Analysis

Ness is the daughter of Esi and a British soldier, who raped Esi while she was imprisoned in the Cape Coast Castle’s dungeon. Soon after Esi arrives in America, Ness is born, and she spends her whole life on various plantations. She is taken away from her mother and sold to a plantation she calls “Hell,” where she is forced to marry to another slave named Sam. When she becomes pregnant and has a son, Kojo, she refuses to remain on the plantation and resolves to escape its brutality. Ness and Sam are caught, and Sam is hanged, but Kojo is able to make it out alive. Ness spends the rest of her life on Thomas Allan Stockham’s plantation.

Ness Quotes in Homegoing

The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Ness or refer to Ness. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heritage and Identity Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Ness Quotes

“I did it,” Ness says. She has spent the night hidden in the left corner of the room, watching this man she's been told is her husband become the animal he's been told that he is.

Related Characters: Ness (speaker), Marcus, Sam, The Devil
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Kojo Quotes

He would never truly know who his people were, and who their people were before them, and if there were stories to be heard about where he had come from, he would never hear them.

Related Characters: Esi, Ness, Kojo / Jo, Ma Aku, Sam, Anna
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Yaw Quotes

“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others […] We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story.”

Related Characters: Yaw (speaker), Esi, Ness
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:
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Homegoing PDF

Ness Quotes in Homegoing

The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Ness or refer to Ness. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heritage and Identity Theme Icon
).
Part 1: Ness Quotes

“I did it,” Ness says. She has spent the night hidden in the left corner of the room, watching this man she's been told is her husband become the animal he's been told that he is.

Related Characters: Ness (speaker), Marcus, Sam, The Devil
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1: Kojo Quotes

He would never truly know who his people were, and who their people were before them, and if there were stories to be heard about where he had come from, he would never hear them.

Related Characters: Esi, Ness, Kojo / Jo, Ma Aku, Sam, Anna
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Yaw Quotes

“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others […] We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story.”

Related Characters: Yaw (speaker), Esi, Ness
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis: