51 pages • 1 hour read
Marlon JamesThe Book of Night Women
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Green Eyes
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to enslavement, sexual violence, torture, and murder.
Lilith’s green eyes represent the visible fact that she has whiteness within her. In her youth her proximity to whiteness makes her feel better than other people, but it also confuses her. Her eyes prove that she is not entirely Black yet everyone sees her that way. As a child, her green eyes drive her relentless belief that she will find love. It both lets her believe that she is different somehow from most Black women and it is a constant push for her to make sense of her whiteness, drawing her toward white people.
During the chaos of the rebellion, Lilith looks into Jack Wilkins’s eyes trying to see herself and decides to help him survive. In the end, her eyes are the key to the empathy that allows her to turn away from revenge. Because of this part of her, she cannot see white people as devils because she is constantly reminded of the fact that she has whiteness in her.
Fire
Fire is a motif in the novel that develops the theme of The Cycle of Violence. Fire occurs alongside revenge, continuing the cycle when the flame inevitably remains lit. Right before Lilith kills Johnny-jumper, she burns herself with fire. Fire is always nearby, signaling that violence is going to come: The rebellion that resulted in Lilith’s birth lights a fire that does not go out; Lilith lights a fire to destroy Coulibre; someone sets fire to Kingston Harbour; and at the next Montpelier rebellion the fields burn. The idea of fire also refers to the Bible. Lilith says she understands why God saves killing for himself and they repeat the phrase “the fire next time,” which refers to the fact that while God promised not to drown them again, he did not promise not to burn them (266, 421). The fact that there will always be a “fire next time” in itself proves the circular nature of violence. It also suggests that the book’s characters are in some form of hell.
Quilt
Two quilts are mentioned in this novel: the quilt of scars on Lilith’s back and the bigger quilt that is the “patchwork of negro bones that reach from Africa to the West Indies” (262). The quilt on Lilith’s back is her constant reminder of her reason for anger, and the quilt of bones serves the same purpose on a larger scale: It shows that the trauma inflicted on the enslaved people is both personal and collective. Both quilts are hidden—Lilith’s behind her, so she cannot see it, and the quilt of bones deep in the ocean, lost if not for written records of the truth like the one the narrator writes. The idea of these quilts represents the interconnectedness of the Black experience. Lilith is born into enslavement, while Homer was forced from her home in Africa, but they have the same quilt on their back.
Lilith tries to remind herself of the quilt on her back when she feels guilty for burning down Coulibre and when she tries to hate Quinn, but it does not always work for her. The quilt is the physical manifestation of the abuse Quinn has caused. It acts as a form of memory and recorded history, highlighting that, despite their romantic relationship, he is still a violent overseer and she a person he has enslaved. The quilt on Lilith’s back is thus a symbol of the necessity for white people to face their history in order to move forward.
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By Marlon James
