Copper Sun

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006

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Chapters 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part Three: Amari

Chapter 17 Summary: Amari and Adjustments

The narration returns to Amari’s point of view, and the reader becomes aware of her own prejudices towards Polly: “The white girl, she gradually learned, had the chance to be free one day” and this thought causes Amari to “[snort] with disdain” (107). However, together Polly and Amari learn all about the ways of the plantation, how to prepare food, what is off limits, and what their duties are. Amari even teaches Teenie how to make the fish stew her mother used to make. “‘You know, my mama come from Africa too,’ Teenie told her. ‘She teached me what she knew ‘bout Africa food. Long as you remember, chile, it ain’t never gone.” (109). Amari’s continues to learn quite a bit of English and she “understood much more than she let anyone know, however. Most of what was said around her she could figure out, but she knew the value of keeping her mouth shut and acting ignorant. An occasional slight nod from Teenie told her she was doing the right thing” (110).

That evening, Master Clay calls Amari to his room. He asks Amari if she likes him, and she has a hard time answering the question. “If she said no, he might get angry. If she said yes, he might manage to misunderstand her hatred for him” (111). She hesitantly says yes. Clay sends her back to her shack with an extra blanket.

Chapter 18 Summary: Roots and Dirt

Teenie teaches Amari about the different herbs and roots around the plantation and what medicinal qualities they have. “But this day Amari was unusually quiet, having been compelled to spend the previous night with Clay, and he had forced her to do things that made her shiver with shame” (112). She asks Teenie if she has a root that would kill someone. Teenie said she does but that “death is not for [her] to give” (112-113). Teenie knows what Amari wants it for and reassures her: “Eventually, they gets tired of you and moves on—but the terribleness of it just goes to another slave woman” (113). While talking about their mothers, Teenie shares some information about the first Mrs. Derby: “she died givin’ birth to that suck-egg mule, Clay. Maybe that why he be so evil— he ain’t never had no mama to love him” (114). Teenie also paints a sad picture for the new wife, Isabelle, and the control she is under while living at Derbyshire Farms.

Chapter 19 Summary: Peaches and Memories

Amari and Polly are still adjusting to their relationship and beginning to share more experiences with each other. When Polly asks what Africa looked like, Amari says: “It look like bright colours, like happy. Sunshine. Family. Chickens and goats. Not need much…Everybody black. Feel good” (117). Polly speaks of her past with her parents and explains to Amari and Tidbit how she knew her parents loved her. “Amari understood well, but it surprised her. She’d never really thought about Polly’s loss or grief. She just figured that because Polly was a white girl, her life just had to have been easier.” (118) Amari reaches out and touches Polly’s hand for consolation, and Polly doesn’t jerk away.

Chapter 20 Summary: Isabelle Derby

“Isabelle Derby, the current mistress of the house, turned out to be surprisingly motherly and caring” (120). She is also pregnant, and it is well-known among the staff that she is unhappy. Mr. Derby controls her every move.

“Amari was fascinated with this white woman who seemed to be so pleasant and gentle…[for] Mrs. Derby smiled at her with genuine compassion,” something that is so foreign to Amari among her experiences with white people (121). One morning, Amari runs into Mrs. Derby, who asks her how she is adjusting and getting along. She tells Amari she knows “what it [was] like to be unhappy” (122), and Amari is surprised at “this white woman…admitting a weakness to her” (122). Isabelle gently touches Amari’s shoulder and says she knows about her and Clay: “It is an unfortunate situation…But I have no control over what he does. To tell you the truth, I have very little power over anything around here…I just want to let you know I sympathize. I hope it ends soon” (123).

Later that afternoon, Teenie is gossiping with another slave woman, Lena, about Mrs. Derby. Lena insists Isabelle “ain’t no slave”, but Teenie says: “Pretty close to it…He decide where she go, who she talk to, what she wear—everything” (124).

Chapters 17-20 Analysis

These four smaller chapters seem to flesh out the characters more while the plot slows down. The adjustment to Derbyshire farms is a shared reality for Amari and Polly, and thus it’s appropriate that the reader (and both characters) learn more about their past experiences. Although still “sizing each other up,” Amari's and Polly’s exchange of experiences will certainly contribute to a more intimate relationship between the two, as shared experience breeds empathy. Amari’s ignorance of this strange world is further widened when she is surprised by the kindness of Isabelle Derby. Even though she is a rich, white woman, she has a paralleled “slave” predicament with Percival Derby’s treatment. Rather than presenting the white people as wholly cruel, Draper presents a well-rounded portrayal in order to solidify her thematic focus on the importance of empathy and how it’s cultivated.

Amari is also comforted in this chapter with reminders of home. She feels Kwasi’s spirit when she spends time with Tidbit, and Teenie shares her mother’s memories of Africa: “She tell me how the thunder of the drums be echoin’ cross the valleys, how the sun look at sunset—like a big old copper pot hangin’ ion the sky” (113). This description of the sun as a “copper pot” again emphasizes the motif of shared experience, as this is the exact imagery that Amari uses to describe the sun earlier in the novel.