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Chapter 62
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Walk to Freedom, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Division
Negotiation, Democracy, and Progress
Nonviolent Protest vs. Violent Protest
The Value of Optimism
Summary
Analysis
All prisoners are classified as A, B, C, or D, with D having the fewest privileges. All political prisoners begin at D and can take a long time to rank up to C. Guards call Mandela a “troublemaker” and refuse to raise his status. Mandela is allowed only one letter and one visitor every six months. Letters become precious, even when they are so censored that they become barely legible. On the rare occasions when Winnie can come, Mandela finds that she seems to be under a lot of pressure. He learns later that she lost her job and has a travel ban. After the visit, he expects to not see her again for six months, but it ends up being two years.
The alphabetical classifications put on prisoners show how prison is a deliberately dehumanizing process that reduces people into categories. The censorship of letters, which hinders communication with the outside world, further contributes to this dehumanization process by making it difficult for the prisoners to continue meaningful relationships with their loved ones on the outside, a process made even worse by the strict rules around visits.
Themes
