Previous
Part 3, Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Speech, Performance, and Willful Ignorance
Identity, Narrative, and Agency
Racism, Dehumanization, and Hypocrisy
Innocence vs. Disillusionment
Family, Alliance, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
The four days Jim spends on the island feel interminable. He is haunted by worry for his family and rage over Katie’s rape. He hates himself for not intervening. One morning, Jim sees a single man on the beach: the overseer, Hopkins. He is drunk and alone. Jim remembers how Hopkins shot at the body of a young, lynched enslaved person. He steals Hopkins’ gun before waking him from his stupor, speaking in slave diction before switching abruptly to normal speech. Jim strangles Hopkins, imploring him to think of all the women he has raped. Jim enjoys how little he cares in this moment, how Hopkins does not matter. He dumps the man’s body in a canoe and sets it adrift.
Jim’s reflections on the world’s injustice still characterize him as disillusioned, but his anger at last pushes him toward action. When Hopkins arrives, Jim seizes the opportunity to right at least one wrong by killing the man. In his conversation with the overseer, Jim drops his performed dialect, revealing at once his intelligence and his humanity, both of which terrify Hopkins. The apathy he feels toward Hopkins at the moment of his death emphasizes that Jim’s focus has shifted away from his oppressors and toward himself. In other words, rather than pursuing white approval or equality, Jim seeks justice for his own satisfaction.
Themes
