Chains

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 1, Chapters 11-13

Part 1, Chapters 14-16

Part 1, Chapters 17-20

Part 1, Chapters 21-24

Part 2, Chapters 25-29

Part 2, Chapters 30-33

Part 2, Chapters 34-37

Part 2, Chapters 38-40

Part 2, Chapters 41-45

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Ghosts

In fiction, when someone refers to ghosts or a supernatural presence, it often creates a sense of mystery or even horror. However, Isabel welcomes and even invites the presence of ghosts, who remind her of her past and a time when her family was whole. The novel begins in a cemetery at a funeral, with Isabel referring to advice her mother once gave her, “The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. That’s when they can hear us true, Mama said. That’s when ghosts can answer us” (3). This is a subversion of the traditional specter narrative. Often, ghosts are pictured as appearing only at night and as a terrifying presence. In Chains, the idea of visiting with a ghost in daylight is comforting and presents an image of communing with the dead rather than running from them. Phantom presences are not frightening for Isabel but an invitation into her memory and the most vulnerable parts of her soul.

At key points early in the narrative, Isabel calls out to her mother and any ghost for help and direction. She is met with silence. In her spiritual tradition, looking to elders for wisdom is a custom. Once Mary Finch dies and leaves the sisters at the mercy of her nephew, Isabel feels adrift without the guidance of an adult. Calling out for supernatural intervention is her only hope for knowing how to make decisions for her sister and herself. It is not until she is taken to the public scaffold, clamped into the pillory, and branded like livestock that the ghosts finally respond. The horrific image of her physical agony and public humiliation is tempered by the tender image of her dead parents attending to her pain: “My momma and poppa appeared from the shadows. They flew to me and wrapped their arms around me and cooled my face with their ghost tears” (148). The shades of her ancestors appear not with the answers to all her questions but as a balm to her burned flesh and shattered heart. They return in the climax of the story as Isabel rows herself and Curzon to freedom and the ghosts guide her way in the dark night. The ghosts symbolize guidance for Isabel as she courageously takes control of her destiny.

Tea Water Pump

A source of clean water is vital to the health of any community, and any city must locate itself near a body of water, spring, or well. The water pump for New York City becomes a central point of the narrative, and it becomes a multifaceted symbol of hope and community. It is first the place where Curzon and Isabel become acquainted, and it is later where she finds community with other enslaved persons. In the end, it becomes a vital means of her daily secret trips to the prison to care for Curzon. Curzon explains on their first visit together, “We’re headed up to what folks call the Tea Water Pump. Rich people get their water from there ‘cause it tastes the best” (37). The pump stands almost a mile from the Lockton home, and at first, Isabel resents the long journey carrying heavy buckets of water. However, she comes to appreciate the visits as they give her a prolonged break from the house and a chance to commune with people like herself.

At the pump, Isabel breathes the fresh air, takes in the lovely scenery, and ultimately finds community, the closest family she finds since losing her mother. She is at first mystified by the man called “Grandfather” who works the pump. However, his scar reminds her of her father, and she soon finds in him a kindred spirit. Isabel could not know that she, too, will bear a scar on her face, but in Grandfather, she finds a kind and wise elder who comforts her each time she sees him. The conversations she overhears at the pump do not always answer her questions about the pain she endures, but she can at least find solidarity with those who share her same plight of enslavement. When Madam Lockton learns of Isabel’s prison visits, she bans her from going to collect water; it is then that Isabel’s stolen visits take on a new significance. She now fetches the water in obedience not to her master but to her moral obligation. The pump, a source of life-giving water, has become a wellspring of courage and determination for Isabel on her quest to help Curzon and eventually find her sister Ruth.

Names

For enslaved persons, who are forced to trade their native name for one chosen by their master, names take on an especially heavy significance. This forceful renaming is but one atrocity in a long line of attempts to snuff out the humanity of the enslaved. Isabel’s name undergoes many changes throughout the narrative. She begins the story as Isabel Finch, but she hopes that will change with her freedom secured in Mary Finch’s will. Once sold to the Locktons, her last name is unwillingly changed again, though she refuses to accept it saying, “According to Madam, my surname was Lockton, but it tasted foul in my mouth” (239). Madam Lockton goes as far as changing Isabel’s first name, further stripping her of any identity and possession she held as her own. Curzon is living with a double name as well, which Isabel discovers upon seeing “James” written inside his red cap.

The names of the characters hold significance outside the text as well. Isabel means “pledged to God,” and Ruth means “compassionate friend.” Ruth is indeed a child full of the most innocent compassion for her sister. Her name also is a reference to the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi. The Old Testament tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman, who pledges her fealty to her mother-in-law after the untimely death of her husband. Isabel’s Ruth surely would stay with her sister were it not for Madam Lockton’s sinister plans. The Locktons’ name signifies the sister’s entrapment, locked in their home in the chains of slavery. Isabel is locked inside her mind, often chained by self-doubt and the lingering fog of her head injury. Lady Seymour “sees more” of Isabel than anyone in the story save Curzon. She is the first adult since Isabel’s mother to treat Isabel like a human and truly see her for the courageous girl she is. Isabel’s symbolic renaming of herself as Isabel Gardner is the moment where she claims her identity: “[F]or I was reborn as Isabel Gardner and that paper proved it” (288). This moment is a new beginning for her, a chance to begin again as a human who has traded her chains and her name for autonomy and liberty.