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
Citizen comes back with Selig, who informs Aunt Ester that all of the roads out of town are blocked off because Caesar is looking for Solly. Aunt Ester then asks him to smuggle Solly downriver. She doesn’t know if he really burned down the mill, but she doesn’t care—she just wants to get him to safety. Overhearing their conversation, Solly bursts out of the bedroom and announces that he did burn the mill. He did it because he has been waiting for true freedom for too long. He didn’t mind waiting a little while after slavery for freedom, but as he got older, he started worrying that he would die before ever experiencing it. At the very least, then, burning the mill will remind everyone that he existed and fought for freedom.
Solly’s frustration with the continued oppression of Black Americans finally came to a tipping point when he saw the unrest sparked by the mill’s exploitative practices. Standing idly by simply wasn’t an option for him, especially since he has been waiting for true, widespread freedom since he himself escaped from slavery—which is to say that he’s been waiting for 40 years. By burning the mill, then, he tries to upend a system that otherwise seems content to go on oppressing and exploiting Black laborers forever.
Themes
Caesar will kill Solly if he finds him, so he’s going to try to flee to Alabama undetected. Citizen decides to go with him; Solly and Eli praise him for making the decision, saying that he’s one of them now. Before they leave, Citizen asks Black Mary if she’s still “right” with herself. If she is, he’d like to come visit her when he comes back, thinking that perhaps they could be “right” with each other. Thinking for a moment about what he has said, she tells him to come by when he returns. Eli then announces that Caesar is coming down the street, so Solly and Citizen run out the back door.
Citizen’s decision to help Solly indicates that his journey to the City of Bones truly changed him. Before the journey, he tended to think mostly about himself and his own needs. For example, he acted selfishly when he let Garret Brown take the blame for stealing the bucket of nails. He also focused on himself when Solly originally asked him to help him travel to Alabama. Now, though, he volunteers to help, making it quite clear that engaging with the shared suffering on the slave ship and in the City of Bones has fundamentally changed him, helping him recognize the value of uniting with his community.
Themes
Selig stays in Aunt Ester’s house and greets Caesar, who unsuspectingly tells him where to cross the river to avoid the roadblocks. When Selig leaves, Caesar informs Aunt Ester that he has a warrant—but she cuts him off, saying that she, too, has a piece of paper. She’s referring to the Bill of Sale that she folded into the shape of a boat. Caesar tries to continue what he was saying about his warrant, but Aunt Ester says she doesn’t care about what a piece of paper says. To prove her point, she makes Caesar read the Bill of Sale: it’s from when she was enslaved, stating that she—a 12-year-old girl at the time—had been sold for $607.
Aunt Ester challenges Caesar’s authority by highlighting how absurd it is to invest so much meaning in the law. Just because he has a warrant doesn’t mean he’s morally justified to do whatever it is he wants to do. By reading him the Bill of Sale, she reminds him that it was once technically legal to sell human beings as if they were livestock. If the law permitted such terrible behavior, then it’s not worthy of much respect.
Themes
Aunt Ester explains that writing the law on a piece of paper doesn’t make it right. The Bill of Sale says that she’s “property,” but both she and Caesar know that’s not true. Her point is lost on Caesar, who says that slavery is over and that she needs to abide by the law. And because he has a warrant for her arrest, he has to take her away—she has, after all, aided and abetted in the hiding of Solly, a wanted criminal. For that reason, he has to arrest her. Eli steps out with a shotgun aimed at Caesar, but Aunt Ester tells him to put it away, and Caesar says he’s going to overlook the fact that Eli broke the law by threatening him. He then takes Aunt Ester to jail.
Aunt Ester challenges the idea that the law is unequivocally right, but Caesar is too wrapped up in following the rules to give her point much thought. Once again, he demonstrates his tendency to turn against his fellow community members. He wants to succeed as the Hill District’s constable, so he unquestioningly enforces the law—even when it’s obviously unjust.
Themes
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