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Chapter 7
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
Mandela returns to Mqhekezweni uncertain about his future. Jongintaba summons him and Justice one day to announce that he believes he may die soon and wants to see his sons married first—and so he has arranged girls from good families for each of them. Neither is excited about this. Although there is nothing wrong with the bride Jongintaba has selected for Mandela, Mandela doesn’t like being forced into the marriage, and he and Justice try to run away to Johannesburg. Jongintaba has heard of their plan and notifies a local train station to try to stop them, but they still manage to slip away.
This passage shows Mandela’s growing rebelliousness. What bothers Mandela most about the arranged marriage is how it deprives him of his ability to choose. Just as Mandela learns at school that he doesn’t want to conform to the elitism of European-style education, he learns in his adoptive family that he doesn’t want to simply follow the traditions of Xhosa life. Mandela’s decision to go off on his own with Justice represents the beginning of his journey to form a new kind of life for himself.
Themes
