Esi Character Analysis in Homegoing

Esi is Maame and Big Man’s daughter and Effia’s half-sister. Esi grows up in an Asante village and sees how her village profits from capturing and selling slaves. She doesn’t think much about it until she is captured herself by warriors from the village of one of her slaves, Abronoma. Esi is then sent to the Cape Coast Castle and is packed into the castle’s dungeon with many other women, while her half-sister, Effia, lives a life of luxury upstairs. One day, Esi is raped by a British soldier and becomes pregnant. She is then shipped to America and sold to a plantation. She and her daughter, Ness, initially work on the same plantation but are separated when Ness is sold to a plantation she calls “Hell.” Esi’s descendants are irrevocably altered by the effects of slavery and institutionalized racism in America. Her final descendant in the novel is Marcus.

Esi Quotes in Homegoing

The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Esi or refer to Esi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.”

Related Characters: Maame (speaker), Abronoma, Esi, Kwame Asare / Big Man

Page Number and Citation: 38

Explanation and Analysis:

Maame acquires a house girl named Abronoma to help her, but when she is unable to do basic chores, Kwame Asare (also known as Big Man) beats Abronoma. Esi tries to defend her father’s actions, saying that he would have appeared weak if he hadn’t beaten Abronoma, but Maame snaps at Esi with this statement. The significance of Maame’s retort is twofold: first, it suggests that slavery or servitude is unacceptable in any capacity, which is a radical notion on the Gold Coast at this time. Additionally, it critiques masculine ideas of strength and dominance. Esi defends her father with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accu

When he had finished, he looked horrified, disgusted with her. As though he were the one who had had something taken from him. As though he were the one who had been violated.

Related Characters: Esi

Page Number and Citation: 48

Explanation and Analysis:

After Esi is captured by some northern warriors, she is brought back to the Cape Coast Castle and forced to endure disgusting conditions in the dungeon, packed in with many other women. Perhaps the most brutal thing she endures is when a soldier pulls her out of the dungeon, takes her back to his quarters, and rapes her. His violent actions reveal how the British soldiers use sexual violence as a means of subjugation particularly for the women, taking advantage of their inability to fight back. This violence also marks a turning point in Esi’s character, as she then becomes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusam

He would never truly know who his people were, and who their people were before them, and if there were stories to be heard about where he had come from, he would never hear them.

Related Characters: Kojo / Jo, Ma Aku, Sam, Ness, Anna, Esi

Page Number and Citation: 130

Explanation and Analysis:

When Jo’s wife, Anna, is kidnapped, he goes back to their home and lies in bed with his adopted mother, Ma Aku. She comforts him in the way she had when he was a boy, crying for his parents, Sam and Ness, whom he would never know, and the people and culture before them that he would not inherit. This is particularly devastating to consider when thinking about Esi, who only two generations earlier, enjoyed asking her friend Tansi about the history of the kente cloth, for example. Jo becomes the first (but certainly not the last) character in America Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum volupta

In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight.

Related Characters: Esi, Effia, Akua / Crazy Woman , Maame

Related Symbols: Fire

Page Number and Citation: 177

Explanation and Analysis:

Akua’s chapter begins with her having nightmares, following an incident in which a British tourist had been burned by the villagers. Her dreams, as described here, bear a striking similarity to circumstances at the beginning of the novel, in which Maame lost both of her daughters: she lost Effia when she escaped from the Fante village because of the fire that swept through the woods, and she lost Esi in another fire in the Asante village. This nightmare haunts Akua because those two sisters were separated, and Effia (Akua’s great-great-great grandmother) and her family benefitted from the destructive force of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae volupt

“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others […] We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story.”

Related Characters: Yaw (speaker), Ness, Esi

Page Number and Citation: 226

Explanation and Analysis:

Yaw grows up to be a history teacher at a school, and at the same time he is writing a book that argues in favor of Ghanaian independence from the British. He begins each year of lessons by explaining to the students that history is storytelling, because people in the present day can only rely on the stories of those who won history’s conflicts. This relates to the characters in the novel who were descended from slaves, because the powerlessness of people like Ness and Esi meant that their stories became lost even to their children. Yaw’s lesson in this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas

How could he explain to Marjorie that he wasn’t supposed to be here? Alive. Free. That the fact that he had been born, that he wasn’t in a jail cell somewhere, was not by dint of his pulling himself up by the bootstraps, not by hard work or belief in the American Dream, but by mere chance.

Related Characters: Effia, Esi, Marcus, Marjorie

Page Number and Citation: 296

Explanation and Analysis:

When Marcus and Marjorie meet in grad school at Stanford, they quickly become friends, and she accompanies him on a trip to Pratt City in order to help with his research. However, he quickly realizes that he wants his research to capture more than one time and place; he wants it to show how much these various systems of oppression have affected nearly every African-American person. In a way, this aim is similar to Gyasi’s own project, as she tries to show the scope of time and the various ways in which Marcus could have had a very different life—for Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia

Esi Character Timeline in Homegoing

The timeline below shows where the character Esi appears in Homegoing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Racism, Slavery, and Systemic Oppression Theme Icon

Esi describes how the smell around her is unbearable. In the corner, one woman is sobbing.... (full context)

Gender Stereotypes, Sexism, and Violence Theme Icon

One year prior, when Esi turned fourteen, she had been in Asanteland, in her father’s (Big Man’s) compound. He had... (full context)

Esi asks her friend Tansi why they are taking the baby. Tansi tells her they will... (full context)

Esi asks Tansi to tell her a story, but the soldiers interrupt them again. They bring... (full context)

Tansi asks Esi if she knows the story of the kente cloth. Esi shakes her head, even though... (full context)

Esi compliments Tansi on her storytelling. The previous story she had told Esi was of her... (full context)

...to the ground and piling more new women into the dungeon on top of them. Esi can feel the women on top of her peeing. (full context)

Esi had been born in a small village to Big Man (who at that time was... (full context)

When Esi is seven, her father wins the battle that earns him the title of Big Man.... (full context)

Esi hears the men’s rallying cries and spills a bit of hot oil on her mother,... (full context)

...Kwaku Agyei says that it takes a “big man” to admit his folly, and thus Esi’s father gains his new name: Big Man. By the time Esi turns twelve, the village... (full context)

Esi is particularly fascinated by the prisoners captured in the wars, some of whom are then... (full context)

...her with the cooking and cleaning. Maame agrees to choose a girl the next day. Esi knows that her mother would do anything for her father, because he had saved her... (full context)

The next day, Esi and Maame choose a girl and name her Abronoma: “Little Dove.” However, they quickly discover... (full context)

...her hut and pulls out her own switch, which she has never used. Maame asks Esi to leave and then she beats Abronoma as both women cry. (full context)

The next day, Big Man gathers everyone to see Abronoma carry the water. Esi can see Abronoma shaking as she lifts the bucket onto her head. She steadies herself... (full context)

Maame is very upset after the beating, and she watches Abronoma sleep. Esi tries to comfort her by saying that if Big Man had not beaten Abronoma, everyone... (full context)

Abronoma wakes up. Esi fetches her water, and Abronoma asks her to leave. Esi starts to say that her... (full context)

Esi thinks about Maame and starts to acknowledge some of the remnants of her former life:... (full context)

In the following months, Esi tries to befriend Abronoma and find out more. Abronoma says she doesn’t know anything, and... (full context)

The next morning, Esi sends a messenger man very early to Abronoma’s father. When she tells Abronoma she has... (full context)

...But other than that, everyone goes along as usual. Fighting continues away from home, as Esi’s village had never been challenged in her lifetime. (full context)

One night, it is Big Man’s night in the hut, and so Esi sleeps in the corner, facing away from her parents. Once she had watched them in... (full context)

...village. Big Man jumps up and grabs his machete. He screams at Maame to take Esi into the woods. Esi grabs a small knife and places it in her skirt. She... (full context)

...laughing and dancing at her father’s arrival. Outside, people are screaming and running. Maame gives Esi a black stone that she had been keeping for Esi’s wedding day, saying that she... (full context)

Esi wants to ask more questions, but the noise outside grows louder, and Maame tells her... (full context)

Time passes, and Esi’s arms start to burn as she hugs the tree. Soon a warrior appears at the... (full context)

The woman behind Esi—Tansi—worries that the white men will eat them. Esi shudders, then introduces herself. In an instant,... (full context)

...Collins and other British soldiers enter the compound. They are the first white men that Esi has seen. Abeeku shows off Esi and the others, explaining that the Asante are very... (full context)

Back in the dungeon of the Castle, the waste is up to Esi’s ankles. She can hardly breathe. That day, she had found her mother’s stone in the... (full context)

Another soldier walks around. When he sees Esi, he smiles. She is baffled because it had been so long since she had seen... (full context)

The soldier places Esi on a folded tarp and begins to rape her. She screams, but he places his... (full context)

Days go on. Esi has not stopped bleeding since the soldier raped her. She doesn’t talk to Tansi and... (full context)

The dungeon door opens and reveals James Collins. He points to twenty women, including Esi. Another soldier grabs them by the wrists and drags them into a line. James checks... (full context)

Esi tries to dig for her stone, but she is lifted up by a soldier before... (full context)

...it feels like a lifetime since she had been sold and taken from her mother, Esi. Esi was a solid, stoic woman who never told a happy story. For this reason,... (full context)

...odd to hear black people speak English. When they were living on a plantation together, Esi had spoken to Ness in Twi for most of her life until their master caught... (full context)

...had come from Asanteland and had been kept in the Castle just like Ness’s mother, Esi. Aku told Ness that she had taken people north to freedom many times. (full context)

Esi Character Analysis

Esi Quotes in Homegoing

Part 1: Esi Quotes

Part 1: Kojo Quotes

Part 2: Akua Quotes

Part 2: Yaw Quotes

Part 2: Marcus Quotes

Esi Character Timeline in Homegoing