Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gem of the Ocean, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Meaning of Freedom
Economic Exploitation
The Value of Community
History and Trauma
The Power of Belief
Summary
Analysis
Eli has just finished eating breakfast in Aunt Ester’s kitchen with Black Mary, who is Ester’s housekeeper and protégé. Peering out the window, Eli notes that Citizen is standing outside. He has been waiting out there since he left the house the night before. Black Mary notes that he’ll most likely go find a place to sleep under a nearby bridge at some point, though there are already a lot of people doing that. And there will be even more people seeking refuge under the bridge, since Black Mary’s brother, Caesar, keeps evicting people. If his tenants fall behind in their rent by just one week, he turns them out on the streets.
Eli and Black Mary’s conversation about Caesar highlights the negative impact that greedy, individualistic mindsets can have on a community. Instead of showing his tenants compassion when they get behind on rent, Caesar immediately evicts them. The result is that the neighborhood gradually fills with homeless people who have nothing to turn to, ultimately infusing the neighborhood with a sense of desperation that will inevitably lead to turmoil and unrest.
Themes
A traveling salesman named Selig comes by Aunt Ester’s house to deliver some stones to Eli and to sell a frying pan to Black Mary. He mentions that the town’s mill is shut down, and Eli tells him that a man named Garret Brown jumped in the river and drowned. He’d been accused of stealing a bucket of nails, so Caesar—the town constable—chased him into the river while trying to arrest him. Garret refused to get out of the water, insisting that he was innocent, so he eventually drowned. His funeral was supposed to be yesterday, but Caesar stopped the burial by saying it was against the law, so now the funeral is going to be held at a different church. Eli thinks Caesar was just mad he didn’t have a chance to punish Garret Brown.
As the town constable (a low-ranking official tasked with enforcing the law), Caesar only seems to care about punishing people who step out of line. Garret Brown, however, refused to submit to him, thus testing just how far he would go to uphold the law. It turns out that Caesar will go to great lengths to carry out his job, considering that he let Garret Brown die over a measly bucket of nails—a good indication that Caesar cares more about having power than about his fellow community members.
Themes
Black Mary subtly defends her brother’s behavior, suggesting that Caesar only would have arrested Garret Brown and that the judge would have simply given him 30 days in jail. But Selig points out that Garret probably didn’t steal the nails—if he was so committed to staying in the cold, dangerous water, he was most likely innocent. He then tells a story about a man in Kentucky. The man was accused of stealing a horse, so he went on the run. Forced to fend for himself, he started stealing horses, but every time he did so, he sent a note back to the owner saying, “I stole that one but I didn’t steal the first one.”
The story Selig tells about the man in Kentucky highlights that a sense of necessity often drives people to crime. Although the man didn’t steal the first horse, he was later forced to steal multiple horses simply because he had no other way of avoiding punishment for something he didn’t do. The story hints at the ways in which unfair power structures often end up creating crime even as they try to do the opposite.
Themes
Solly, a good friend and suitor of Aunt Ester’s, knocks on the door and enters the kitchen singing about his involvement with the Underground Railroad. He tells the others that the millworkers are refusing to go back to work. But Black Mary changes the subject by telling him to keep his basket of dog poop outside. “It’s pure!” he says. “It’s called pure!” He explains that people have been collecting dog poop for centuries and selling it to shoemakers, who use it while working with leather. Still, though, she’s unhappy about him bringing poop into the house.
Throughout Gem of the Ocean, events at the local mill play out in the background, creating an ominous and somewhat chaotic backdrop for the rest of the play. While Black Mary and Solly argue about “pure” (which leatherworkers really did use to soften leather), unrest breaks out at the mill over what happened with Garret Brown. The struggle between the workers and their powerful employers becomes emblematic of the many economic struggles Black Americans faced in the decades after slavery.
Themes
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Before Selig takes his leave, Eli thanks him for the stones he brought. He then asks Solly to help him build a wall—he wants to build it as a way of keeping Caesar out. If he keeps behaving the way he has been, Eli says, he’ll eventually put everyone in jail. Solly agrees that Caesar is the kind of person enslavers would want to help them keep enslaved people “in line.”
Eli’s comment about Caesar indicates that the members of the Black community see him as a threat, despite the fact that he himself is part of that community. Similarly, Solly’s suggestion that Caesar would have been a valued worker in the slavery system suggests that he’s something of a traitor—someone who will gladly work against his community if it helps him get ahead.
Themes
Solly has received a letter from his sister, who lives in Alabama. He asks Black Mary to read it aloud to him, and she obliges. The letter says that conditions are terrible in the South for Black people, since southern white people won’t let anybody migrate north. Many Black southerners have even been beaten to death for trying to leave. Solly’s sister wants to come to the North but is too afraid to make an escape, so she asks Solly what she should do.
Gem of the Ocean is set roughly ten years before what’s known as the Great Migration, when millions of Black Americans living in the South traveled north to find better economic opportunities and escape intense racial discrimination. The play explores the years leading up to this mass migration by focusing on the first waves of Black people wanting to run from hardship in the South—a decision that wasn’t easy to make, since it often meant facing the possibility of violence from white people who didn’t want Black people to leave.
Themes
Solly decides that he has to go to Alabama to help his sister escape to the North. But he’s 67 and starting to feel his age, so he knows he needs someone to accompany him. Eli would gladly join him, but he has to stay to care for Aunt Ester, who comes out of her bedroom and says that she’s always cold, prompting Eli to worry that she’s getting sick. She brushes off Eli’s concern and buys some pure from Solly, chastising Black Mary for not wanting to touch the dog poop. In response, Black Mary announces that she has to go into town instead of finishing the laundry she was working on.
Eli’s willingness to help others is on display in this scene, as he wishes he could accompany Solly on his journey south. The reason he can’t go with Solly, though, is that he has already committed himself to helping Aunt Ester. He is, in other words, a selfless person who has no problem with devoting himself to supporting his fellow community members—a mindset that stands in stark contrast to the highly individualistic way that someone like Caesar moves through the world.
Themes
After Black Mary leaves, Solly tells Aunt Ester that he has strong feelings for her, but she says that he probably tells all the other women he’s interested in the exact same thing. When he insists that he cares about her more than anyone else, she calls his bluff by suggesting that they get married. She then relates a dream she had in which Solly had a boat full of men and promised to help her get “back across the ocean” by parting the water. But first he had to go finish something else. When he returned, all the men had drowned and his boat was slowly sinking, so he promised to come back once again—but then, still in the dream, he walked away and said he was going to Alabama.
Solly hasn’t told Aunt Ester yet that he has to travel to Alabama to save his sister from racist violence. Therefore, the dream she has—in which he says he has to go to Alabama—suggests that she has certain powers of premonition. The play never exactly clarifies whether or not she possesses mystical or supernatural powers, but moments like this one certainly infuse her behavior with a certain aura of mystery and magic, which later plays into her ability to help Citizen Barlow.
Themes
Solly admits that he was ready to devote himself to Aunt Ester until he received word from his sister. But now he has to leave for Alabama. It will most likely be his last trip to the South, since he’s getting old. After he tells Aunt Ester about his impending trip to Alabama, he and Eli leave for Garret Brown’s funeral, though Ester tells him to come back afterwards to eat pig feet. He wants a lot more than pig feet, he jokes, but he doesn’t think she’ll give it to him—she calls him a “rascal” and tells him to leave.
Solly makes his desire for Aunt Ester clear, and it seems like she reciprocates his feelings—to a certain extent, at least. But he won’t let himself commit to a relationship with her right now because he feels a responsibility to go to Alabama to help his sister. It’s apparent, then, that he prioritizes other people over his own wants and needs, never letting himself do something for his own benefit when he could help someone else instead.
Themes
