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Hiram Walker
Sophia is a young woman enslaved by Nathaniel Walker at Lockless. Nathaniel regularly rapes her and eventually fathers her baby, Caroline. Sophia was born and raised in Carolina, where she was in a relationship with a man named Mercury. However, after being sold, she ends up in Virginia at Lockless. Sophia has feelings for Hiram but is fiercely independent, and balks at the idea of being “chained” to any man. She is thus initially resistant to getting together with Hiram, although she eventually commits to being with him and says that because she chose it, it is not a form of confinement. As well as being headstrong and independent, Sophia is intelligent, yet also light-hearted, and often teases Hiram. She gets lost in thought as a way of physically dissociating from her body, perhaps as a result of the trauma and brutality she has had to endure.
Sophia Quotes in The Water Dancer
The The Water Dancer quotes below are all either spoken by Sophia or refer to Sophia. 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:
).
Chapter 32
Quotes
“Was a big king who come over from Africa on the slave ship with his people. But when they got close to shore, him and his folk took over, killed all the white folks, threw ’em overboard, and tried to sail back home. But the ship run aground, and when the king look out, he see that the white folks’ army is coming for him with they guns and all. So the chief told his people to walk out into the water, to sing and dance as they walked, that the water-goddess brought ’em here, and the water-goddess would take ’em back home.
And when we dance as we do, with the water balanced on our head, we are giving praise to them who danced on the waves. We have flipped it, you see?”
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Get the entire The Water Dancer LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sophia Quotes in The Water Dancer
The The Water Dancer quotes below are all either spoken by Sophia or refer to Sophia. 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:
).
Chapter 32
Quotes
“Was a big king who come over from Africa on the slave ship with his people. But when they got close to shore, him and his folk took over, killed all the white folks, threw ’em overboard, and tried to sail back home. But the ship run aground, and when the king look out, he see that the white folks’ army is coming for him with they guns and all. So the chief told his people to walk out into the water, to sing and dance as they walked, that the water-goddess brought ’em here, and the water-goddess would take ’em back home.
And when we dance as we do, with the water balanced on our head, we are giving praise to them who danced on the waves. We have flipped it, you see?”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
