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Chapter 63
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
In January, Mandela is surprised when all the prisoners are lined up. He finds that they’re being taken to work at a lime quarry. Although the work is hard, Mandela and the other prisoners find it strangely invigorating. The heat, however, is bad and causes a constant glare. It takes three years of requests before prisoners get sunglasses. The common-law prisoners start to mock the political prisoners with songs, but the political prisoners respond with their own songs. Eventually a guard who understands the Xhosa language forces them to stop. Mandela remains convinced that he can convert the common-law prisoners to his side.
January is summer in the southern hemisphere and is thus one of the hottest times of the year. The conflict between the common-law prisoners and the political prisoners is yet another example of people with a common enemy disagreeing with one another (much like the ANC and PAC). Mandela’s refusal to see these fellow prisoners as enemies, in spite of their taunting of him and his allies, shows how he remains committed to be a unifier, even when he’s struggling during hard prison labor.
Themes
