River Sing Me Home

“Alone, mud-streaked, with weariness sinking into her very bones, a question haunted her—Was this freedom?”

Rachel’s question foreshadows The Quest for Freedom and establishes a major conflict in the novel. Rachel, having been enslaved for the entirety of her life, does not know what freedom is supposed to feel like. She ponders variations of the question throughout the text, encountering different modes of freedom until she figures out her definition of it.

“Freedom was just another name for the life they had always lived.”

This quote adds socio-historical context to the apprenticeship system. The enslaved people on Providence Plantation, now all apprentices under the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, are skeptical of the apprenticeship system, seeing no difference between it and slavery. This contextualizes why Rachel is unsure about what freedom is.

“The mother spoke a name, and Rachel knew that it was her name—the name she was meant to have before some white man called her Rachel. What the white man gave, he could always take away. But this other name—this was hers.”

Rachel connects with a deeper identity that fulfills her. In hearing this other name, Rachel taps into ancestral currents that inspire her to seek freedom, although she is unsure what it looks like. By claiming the other name as hers, Eleanor Shearer calls attention to the novel’s themes concerning memory, liberation, and interconnection.

“There was freedom in this new kind of smallness, an exhilarating sense that she was in the world, and not just passing through it at a white man’s pace.”

Being far enough from the plantation to take in the natural landscape encourages Rachel to ponder her place in the world in general. The sea allows her to feel part of something bigger than her, and bigger than slavery, even if the part of it she occupies is just a small part. Her joy comes from feeling the connection to the spaces around her rather than a tool for exploiting it. Rachel’s feelings tie into the predominant theme of the text: The Connection Between All Things.

“Is it true? she asked them. That you are the reason I left?”

Rachel does not fully understand her motivation for escaping Providence Plantation until Mama B tells her. Once Rachel asks this question, she understands that although she may not have recognized her reasoning intellectually, she intuitively knew. This quote signals the beginnings of Rachel’s journey within the plot.

“She had always thought the plantation evidence of the white man’s power over nature—his ability to enclose the land and force from the soil the things he desired.”

Now in Bridgetown, Rachel sees another variation of the spatial politics that governed her experiences while enslaved. Rachel does not feel safe in Bridgetown because so much of it reminds her of a plantation although Bridgetown offers some ways to be free.

“Eventually, taking Mary Grace’s hands in her own, Rachel said, ‘Me find you.’”

Rachel says this to Mary Grace to express the sheer weight of her joy and her desire to know the young woman her daughter has become. Shearer uses Caribbean English in this quote to represent psychological rejuvenation. Rather than letting the narrator speak on Rachel’s behalf through description—the narrator’s voice is written in standardized English—Shearer lets Rachel speak for herself in her own way. Shearer depicts Rachel and Mary Grace’s reunion without losing cultural information through standardized English grammatical conventions.

“The memory of Mama B would always be with her; not a ghost of a memory, but a living thing, like a branch grafted onto her that would keep growing after they parted.”

This quote alludes to the theme of The Power of Memory. Within this quote is a reference to the dream mother who sparks Rachel’s journey. Mama B becomes a substitute for the dream mother because she is unforgettable. Shearer’s use of simile—comparing Mama B to a branch—to convey the depth of their connection makes Rachel and Mama B’s relationship more vivid. Yet, in comparing Mama B’s impact to a branch grafted to a tree, Shearer establishes a change in Rachel’s character. Rachel cannot forget Mama B; therefore, she carries her within her through memory. By not forgetting her, Rachel has a better model for living in the world.

“Me have so much me want to forget.”

Rachel speaks to and interacts with dreamlike versions of her children throughout the text. These dream versions of her children let Rachel use her intuition. In this vision, Rachel understands that not all traumas can be relieved by naming them. Considering the circumstances leading to Mary Grace’s silence, Shearer reminds the reader of Mary Grace’s humanity through this quote—that the psychological, familial, and physical harms of slavery need not be explicitly relived to be understood.

“This was the real power of slavery, the long shadow it could cast after its formal end — that even with all this distance between her and Providence, Rachel still lived in fear.”

This quote explains why Rachel kept the blanket the beggar gave her in Bridgetown. Although she has escaped Providence Plantation, the trauma of being enslaved remains. The quote, being close to the section of the text where Rachel receives the blanket, sheds light on the blanket’s symbolism of Rachel’s fears in Part 1.

“‘I have always survived it,’ he said. ‘I do not mind feeling small. I do not need reminding that I am Nobody—as are we all.’”

The passage shows that Rachel and Nobody have a lot in common besides their experiences as people who were enslaved. Like Rachel, Nobody respects the sea because of the feeling of being connected to something bigger than himself. Shearer also uses a pun of Nobody’s name to illustrate the fundamental powerlessness that humanity has in the face of nature.

“Rachel could see his mother in his eyes—a faint outline, a distant memory with her features blurred—and she knew that he could see a piece of his mother in her, too. Together, these echoes of his mother were enough. They released him from the decades-old command.”

Nobody joins Rachel due to seeing his own mother in her eyes. The narrator’s description of what Rachel sees in him is an allusion to the dream mother that spoke to her in Chapter 1. Like Rachel, Nobody is haunted by the memories of his own mother, although the memory is distant. Because Rachel notices their similarities, her presence commands him to join her on her search for her remaining children. Rachel’s observation calls attention to the themes The Connection Between All Things.

“But deep in his eyes she could see that same void that had filled the eyes of her dying children, Kitty and Samuel.”

Rachel recognizes the grief of an old man who is waiting for his wife to arrive from St. Lucia. The similarities in their loss make Rachel empathize with him. Rachel’s empathy in this situation shows The Power of Memory, even if the memory itself is different.

“That’s the beauty of freedom, he say. You never know what gon’ happen next.”

This quote comes from the only time in the novel that the plot changes perspectives. Micah’s observation regarding freedom exemplifies the worth of exploration for its own sake. The comment describes Rachel’s ideas on what freedom is, even though it was spoken to Orion. It also shows how the past can impact the present in meaningful ways.

“Or perhaps, as the name ‘Micah’ cut through her heart every time, it felt like a folktale or a myth featuring a god or a creature she knew in a story that she did not.”

Rachel’s struggle to grieve Micah is explained in this quote. Like her son Thomas Augustus, Rachel has a mythologized view of Micah. Nonetheless, the outlines of this mythology differ as Thomas was not acquainted with his sibling beyond the tales that Rachel told him as a child. Rachel, however, was aware of Micah as a young child, yet Orion’s recollection of him differs from what she knew. This quotation not only exemplifies The Power of Memory to establish connections but also illustrates its capacity to shield individuals from reality.

“If anyone is wandering here, Rachel, it’s you.”

Nobody says this to Rachel when Rachel asks him not to break Mary Grace’s heart by traveling the sea. It is implied in this quote that although their routes to adventure differed from each other, they are united in their shared love of doing it. Considering the life he has led at sea, Nobody represents a conventional adventurer. However, Rachel is also an adventurer because she embraces the danger of the elements and social limitations for her children. The text emphasizes the gendered nature of the idea of adventure.

“Their story was their own, and there was none like it, before or since. But she also felt the thousands of other threads, the collective weaving together of all lives. The beauty was that they would not be the first mother and son to find each other again, nor, hopefully, would they be the last.”

Chapter 24 depicts Rachel’s powerful reunion with Thomas Augustus. Although the separation has changed them both, it could not sever their connection. In their reunion, Rachel and Thomas Augustus embody the possibilities for the villagers’ future, thereby transforming their lives in a manner similar to their own. This quote demonstrates The Connection Between All Things.

“She had seen in him, that night, the possibility of change. What would he do with his life now? How far from its former destination would his river turn?”

Rachel realizes that although she may not see Thomas Augustus again, their reunion and the memories they made together will impact them for the rest of their lives. The quote links rivers as a symbol of the displaced Caribbean population since Rachel is contemplating Thomas’s future in the region.

“They looked at each other like wounded animals of different species, recognizing what they had in common—the search for home after a family had been scattered—but not quite able to make themselves understood across all that separated them.”

Using exposition, the narrator describes the day Nuno leaves Rachel’s group. The quote supports the theme of The Connection Between All Things and The Power of Memory, since memories are treated as cultural bridges within the novel. It also illustrates how shared experiences cannot erase cultural trauma, even if the same system is responsible for it. Shearer demonstrates that the recognition of differences does not necessarily mean that those differences are crossable. Nuno is part of the cultural fabric that constitutes the Caribbean population. Nonetheless, being a member of a group does not necessarily imply that one shares all its commonalities. Rachel recognizes this in the same way that Tituba recognizes that, as a person who has never been enslaved, there are things to which she cannot relate.

“They could forget her face, her voice, the feeling of her arms around them, as she had forgotten her own mother. But her warmth, her love and her desire to see them be well, they could not forget.”

 In this quotation, Rachel’s emotions evoke the memory of the dream mother from Chapter 1, bringing to light The Power of Memory. Cherry Jane may not be able to remember specifics about Rachel, but she can’t forget her own feelings about her. It is comforting to Rachel that Cherry Jane cannot forget Rachel’s essence, even if she denounces it. Because of the familial bonds restored through their reunion, Rachel can move on, thus signaling to the reader a change in how she sees the world.

“Whenever Mr. Thornhill came near, she held his gaze. She could still sense his cruelty, but she was no longer afraid.”

Rachel’s belief in her own dignity is demonstrated by her interaction with Thornhill in Chapter 34. In previous sections, Rachel shrank away from white men because she remembered how cruel they were in the past. Although Thornhill is the most dangerous white man she’s encountered in the book, Rachel holds on to her hard-fought power. By looking Thornhill in the eye, Rachel rebukes slavery’s hold on her present and future. This gesture suggests that resistance does not need to be a violent struggle to be effective. It can be an act as inconspicuous as looking one’s oppressor in the eyes.

“The others, who had never known Cato and never would, could feel the power of his memory.”

This quote reinforces The Power of Memory. Like Micah as an adult, Cato comes to Rachel’s attention through other people’s reminiscences of him. Cato’s murder inspires Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody to honor his sacrifice by escaping from the very place he tried to flee.

“We must continue. We must not be caught. We must live.”

Mercy thinks of these words after she, Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody escape Perseverance Plantation. The quote shows how determined the group is to make sure Mercy’s unborn son is born free. Using the urgent anaphora of “[w]e must,” the narrator’s description of Mercy’s thoughts shows how desperate she is, as well as Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody.