Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Copper Sun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery, Dehumanization, and Resistance
Horror vs. Beauty
Friendship
Memory and Storytelling
Gender, Race, and Power
Summary
Analysis
About two weeks later, Mr. Derby bursts into the kitchen looking agitated—he can’t find Lena or Flora, his other house slave. He throws dishes to the floor and demands to know why Amari isn’t in the rice fields. Amari says nothing. Then, he asks Polly what she knows about childbirth and explains that he sent Noah for the doctor, but they won’t return for hours. Polly agrees to help, and Mr. Derby tells Amari to help too—she’s delivered babies before. He runs to the next plantation. Teenie sends the girls to the house with hot water. They go to Mrs. Derby’s room and find her in bed, moaning. Between contractions, she says that she’ll die, but that the girls must help her baby. Amari sooths Mrs. Derby. Mrs. Derby’s labor progresses and Amari delivers the baby. Amari croons that the baby is beautiful: she has green eyes, black hair, and dark skin.
Before the baby is born, it’s easy to write off Mrs. Derby’s insistence that she’ll die to the pain of childbirth. However, once the baby arrives and is clearly Black, her meaning becomes clear: no matter how this baby was conceived, the father definitely isn’t Mr. Derby, and he’s guaranteed to be livid when he finds out. Given how little power Mrs. Derby has despite being white and wealthy, she may legitimately fear for her life—and that of the infant and the father—due to the color of her baby’s skin. This fear and uncertainty, however, doesn’t change the fact that the baby still represents hope and life, even if her life is tenuous.
Themes
