Copper Sun

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006

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Chapters 40-42Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part Eleven: Amari

Chapter 40 Summary: Time to Meet the Future

After resting the night, the three are excited to find Fort Mose. Tidbit asks about his mother again. Amari tells him: “Your mama is glad because she know you be full of joy” (282). She reminds him of the special kente cloth that she gave him to remember her by. He asks her: “Will you be my mama now, Amari?” and, of course, she agrees (283).

“That afternoon they finally saw it—the place they had dreamed of for so long” (284). It is quite small and the houses are small and few. Amari states the obvious: “Freedom not big. Freedom not pretty…But freedom sure do feel good” (284).

Chapter 41 Summary: Fort Mose

The three of them walk into the town quickly, and a “woman, dressed in a simple green calico dress and a bonnet to match” stands in front of a house and calls to them, waving (285-286). She welcomes them over and feeds them bowls of corn pudding and roasted rabbit. Amari and Polly tell her of their far and difficult journey and want to confirm that they are in Fort Mose. Hardly believing that they’ve finally made it, Amari isn’t sure about what to dream anymore. The woman (named Inez) says: “Dreams disappear when you wake up—ever notice that, chile?” (287) She explains to the newcomers that life is not exactly easy in Fort Mose. Her husband is serving in the Spanish army down in Cuba as part of the deal for living freely in this Spanish territory. When Amari introduces them properly, Tidbit tells everyone his real name is Timothy, and so that’s what they agree to call him. There are only about one hundred people who live in Fort Mose, and “everybody gets along because nobody got much” (289).

Inez wants to introduce them to Captain Menendez. He will find them a place to live and get them registered in St. Augustine. When Amari first sets eyes on him, she is taken back by how much he reminds her of her father. He is kind and gracious but politely reminds them that life here isn’t easy. Polly reassures him that they are used to that and are ready for hard work. The captain asks them about their skills and what they can contribute to the community. Amari can weave, and Polly can read and write so she will be able to teach the children. Amari is shocked to hear that she will be paid for her work. “‘Of course’, the captain replied, ‘Only slaves work for no reward’” (293).

The Captain has them stay in a vacant house. Polly says she could sleep for a week. Inez encourages her to do so because they’ve “got a heap of healin’ to do” (295). She also says: “You’ve got family now—folks who will help take care of you” (295).

Chapter 42 Summary: Copper Sun

The three freed slaves are given a tour of the settlement and are introduced to several of the blended families. “As they reached the thatched cottage that would be her new home, Amari thrilled at the sight” (297). Complete with a viable garden and more space than she and Polly shared back at Derbyshire farms, “there would be plenty of room for the three of them” (297).

After some discussion with Inez about how Amari has been feeling, it becomes clear that Amari is pregnant. Her initial reaction is one of revulsion; “she could not erase the image of Clay’s hateful face from her mind” (298). Alone, Amari is flooded with emotions. She is convinced she can’t go through with it all. And as much as she hates that Clay is the father, it strikes her suddenly that “this child carries the spirit of [her] mother…as well as the essence of her father, little Kwasi…and the spirits of all her ancestors” (300). “Amari refused to think of Clay any longer, for she knew his evil spirit could never touch the love she was already beginning to feel for the child within her” (301).

Chapters 40-42 Analysis

Fort Mose, although real and free, is not exactly the paradise that the readers may have expected for a victorious ending to the book. It’s small and still fairly primitive, but it is still much better than what they have left. The assurance from Inez and Captain Menendez that life isn’t easy in Fort Mose is a hyperbole for these three, as they left way more horrible, “uneasy” conditions to arrive there.

However, to add to the difficulty and realism of this new phase of her journey, Amari accepts that she is pregnant with Clay Derby’s child. It could be the very thing that ruins the triumph of her newly-earned freedom; this child will be a reminder of the terrible life she left behind, and so, in a way, she is still oppressed. But these thoughts are quickly pushed aside when she remembers that her unborn child has the “spirit” of her homeland in Africa as well and that is enough to love it.

The novel ends with the elevation of its central symbol—the copper sun and its connection to this new world that Amari finds herself in: “Amari glanced toward the west and watched the sun set. It glowed a bright metallic copper—the same sun that set each evening upon her homeland” (302). By being able to see the same sun that was in her homeland, the idea of “home” has come to be wherever she is happy and free. Her final reflection in the novel is a testament to this; in Fort Mose, “she knew that she had found a home once more” (302).