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
Amari, Polly, and Tidbit move into the woods until Polly suggests they stop. Amari feels at home in the dense green woods. They sit to catch their breath, and Amari tells Polly and Tidbit that her name is Amari, not Myna anymore. Polly frowns and says she’s used to Myna, but Amari remains firm, and Polly relents. Tidbit says he wants his mother, but Amari tells him he’ll be free and make Teenie proud. Polly asks where the river is and wonders how they’ll get to the North if they can’t find it. Amari knows exactly where the river is and says they’re going south, like Cato said. Polly argues and insists that Amari will always be a slave if they go south, but Amari refuses to give in. Amari says that Polly can go north alone, though she hopes Polly will stay with her.
Insisting that Polly and Tidbit refer to her as Amari, not Myna, is a way for Amari to take back control of her identity and her body. She’s not Clay’s anymore—she belongs to herself. This is also likely why she chooses to go south instead of north: going south shows respect for Cato and for other Black people. While she no doubt appreciates Dr. Hoskins’s gesture of setting them free, she also recognizes that as a white man, he probably knows little about how to effectively find freedom—while Cato, a Black slave, likely knows more.
Themes
Amari knows that Polly could easily make it alone, as a white girl, but Polly says that they need each other. Before Amari can reply, they hear someone approaching: It’s Hushpuppy. He rushes to Tidbit. Smiling, Polly asks if Amari really believes Fort Mose is real. Amari says she is and points out that patrols are looking for them if they go north. She says that spirits will lead them, and though Polly doesn’t believe in spirits, she agrees to come. They silently walk for the rest of the afternoon. Amari relaxes for the first time in a long time. At dusk, Amari says that they’ll follow the river overnight. Tidbit whines and sits down, so Amari agrees that they can rest for a bit.
Because Polly is white, it’d be far easier for her to blend in by herself—and impossible for Amari and Tidbit to do so, given that there are no free Black people in the South. Their skin marks them as slaves, whereas Polly is just another poor white person without her certificate of indenture or something to prove her identity. This speaks to just how much danger Amari and Tidbit are in while on the run: anyone who sees them will know instantly that they’re runaways.
Themes
The girls can hear people on the river and slaves singing in the rice fields. Amari whispers to Polly that they must leave the river, like Cato said. Polly shakes her head, but after a short nap, they wake Tidbit and march south. Amari looks to the stars. She wonders if they’re the same stars she remembers from home.
Now that Amari is out of Mr. Derby’s grasp, she can once again start to take notice of the beautiful natural world around her. Her tenuous freedom makes it far easier to see the beauty. This makes the emotional damage of slavery abundantly clear: it sucks meaning and beauty out of a person’s life.
Themes
