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Black Stones
Fire represents the pain that plagues the characters on the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) due to their family’s participation in the slave trade. Many of the characters are afraid of fire or are haunted by it. For example, Maame abandons her daughter Effia in the Fante village on the night she is born because of a raging fire, catalyzing a series of events that allows Effia to remain on the Gold Coast and eventually participate in the slave trade, while her sister, Esi, is eventually sold into slavery. Later in the novel, spurred by watching a white man tied to a tree and burned, Akua dreams of a woman made of fire holding two children. This dream ties back to Maame and her two daughters, representing how the slave trade destroyed one line of the family tree and cursed the other line. In her madness, Akua sets fire to her own hut, killing two of her children and permanently scarring her son, Yaw. At the end of the novel, Marjorie (Akua’s granddaughter) is also afraid of fire, but overcomes this fear with Marcus’s help, while she in turn helps him overcome his fear of water. The inheritance of this fear of fire mirrors the guilt and pain that the family passes down to each generation due to their participation in the slave trade.
Fire Quotes in Homegoing
The Homegoing quotes below all refer to the symbol of Fire. 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:
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Part 1: Effia
Quotes
He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued.
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Part 2: Akua
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In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight.
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Get the entire Homegoing LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fire Symbol Timeline in Homegoing
The timeline below shows where the symbol Fire appears in Homegoing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Kojo
...about ships because of it. Once, Poot had even saved his job, putting out a fire that Jo had started, which threatened to take down the entire boat.
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Part 2: Akua
...with their worries and problems. But when she sees a white man being swallowed by fire, she cannot let go of her nightmares. In her dreams, the fire is shaped like...
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...under the tree had been picked up by the crowd, tied to a tree and burned. He had been shouting in English that he was only a traveler, and not from...
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...day they cook for the men in shifts. At night, Akua continues to dream of fire.
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...is pregnant. One day while Akua is boiling yams, she finds herself staring at the fire. Nana Serwah catches her and shakes her out of her stupor. However, the same thing...
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...Akua is grateful for the break, but when she sleeps, she continues to see the firewoman, who asks where her children are. The next day Akua tries to leave her hut,...
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...wanted her to repent. Akua asked where her body was; the Missionary said that he burned it. The Missionary had then fallen to the ground. Akua walked over his body to...
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...begins to make love to her. Afterwards, Akua is able to sleep without dreaming of fire. She thinks that she’ll be alright, and when her son Yaw is born, she knows...
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...beach once, but she had been mesmerized by it. In her dream, the ocean catches fire, and the firewoman beckons her into the ocean, holding the two fire children. She feels...
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...begin to open. Ten men lift her above their heads. Her hands and feet are burned. They bring her out to a crowd of people, who call her wicked and evil...
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Part 2: Yaw
...had heard about his scar was this: his mother, Akua, had set the hut on fire while he and his sisters slept. Asamoah had only been able to save him and...
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