Marcus Character Analysis in Homegoing

Marcus is Sonny and Amani’s son and the final descendant of Esi in the novel. He grows up in Harlem with Sonny and his grandmother, Willie. Marcus is completing a Ph.D. in Stanford on the convict leasing system, but ultimately he finds that he wants to speak about the multiple generations of oppression that his family has faced. Eventually, he meets Marjorie, who is the descendant of Effia, and the two help each other come to terms with their history and identity when they visit Ghana together.

Marcus Quotes in Homegoing

The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Marcus or refer to Marcus. 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:

“I did it,” Ness says. She has spent the night hidden in the left corner of the room, watching this man she's been told is her husband become the animal he's been told that he is.

Related Characters: Ness (speaker), Sam, Marcus, The Devil

Page Number and Citation: 80

Explanation and Analysis:

At the plantation Ness refers to as “Hell,” she is married off to another slave named Sam, a large, muscular man who doesn’t speak any English. One night in a fury, Sam destroys the slave quarters, and when the master of the plantation (“the Devil”) comes to investigate, Ness lies and says that she did it, for which she is brutally whipped. Ness’s description here comes to show the injustice of the slave system and specifically the cruelty of the way in which white plantation owners view and treat male slaves. The master treats Sam like an animal by whipping, 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 neces

“What I know now my son: Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home. I'm sorry you have suffered.”

Related Characters: Akua / Crazy Woman (speaker), Marcus, Marjorie, Yaw

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

As an adult, Yaw returns to his childhood village in order to see his estranged mother, Akua, again. When the two reunite, Akua apologizes to Yaw for burning down their hut when he was a baby, killing his two sisters and scarring his face permanently. In this passage, Akua acknowledges how she and Yaw had been affected by (and in fact cursed by) her family’s participation in the slave trade several generations earlier, and also how that evil has manifested itself in a legacy of racism in the world. As a direct result of the family’s actions, the slave trade 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 a

And if he slammed the book down, then everyone in the room would stare and all they would see would be his skin and his anger, and they’d think they knew something about him, and it would be the same something that had justified putting his great-grandpa H in prison, only it would be different too, less obvious than it once was.

Related Characters: Marcus, H

Page Number and Citation: 289-290

Explanation and Analysis:

Marcus is getting his Ph.D. at Stanford, and he describes how originally he wanted to focus his work on the convict leasing system that had stolen years from his great-grandfather H’s life. However, as he embarked on the project, he found himself getting increasingly angry about the systemic oppression that black people had faced before and since then. The stereotypes of black men fed into that oppression (as it had, for example, led to the brutal beating and eventual hanging of Sam, or to H’s imprisonment in the first place), and Marcus points out that those stereotypes still shape people’s 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. Explicab

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

“Here,” Marjorie said. “Have it.” She lifted the stone from her neck, and placed it around Marcus’s. “Welcome home.”

Related Characters: Marjorie (speaker), Marcus

Related Symbols: Black Stones, Water and Boats

Page Number and Citation: 300

Explanation and Analysis:

In the final pages of the novel, Marjorie and Marcus travel back to Ghana together and visit the Cape Coast Castle. On the beach, Marcus is forced to face his fear of water as Marjorie leads him into the ocean. Once he gets there, Marjorie welcomes him home and gives him her stone necklace. This gesture is highly symbolic, as the necklace is representative of Ghanaian heritage. Marjorie’s family has been able to pass it down for seven generations, while Marcus’s branch of the family tree lost its stone when Esi was taken from the dungeon of the Cape Coast 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 eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore

Marcus Character Timeline in Homegoing

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

Racism, Slavery, and Systemic Oppression Theme Icon

Marcus doesn’t care for water; the ocean had always nauseated him. His father, Sonny, had told... (full context)

Marcus always saw Sonny’s brilliance, but knew that it was “trapped underneath something.” In the mornings... (full context)

Now getting his Ph.D. in sociology at Stanford, Marcus has been invited to a pool party to celebrate the new millennium. At the party,... (full context)

Marcus calls Sonny every Sunday, checking in and making sure everything is okay. Sonny tells Marcus... (full context)

After his phone call, Marcus’s friend Diante drags him to an art museum to try to find a girl he... (full context)

Marcus returns to his research. He had wanted to focus on the convict leasing system that... (full context)

Marcus goes to a party in San Francisco that night with Diante. During the party, Diante... (full context)

When Marcus sees Marjorie, he feels as though he has been found. Months pass, and their friendship... (full context)

Marcus asks if she goes back to Ghana often. Marjorie admits that she hasn’t been back... (full context)

Marcus spends the rest of the year avoiding his research. He and Marjorie had gone to... (full context)

Marcus explains that he’s afraid of the ocean because he has no idea where it begins.... (full context)

Marjorie and Marcus go to the Cape Coast Castle. The tour guide shows them the church, directly above... (full context)

Marcus feels sick to his stomach and starts to push on the door of the dungeon.... (full context)

Then Marjorie runs into the water, and asks Marcus to join her. He does, water crashing all around him. When he lifts his head... (full context)

Marcus Character Analysis

Marcus Quotes in Homegoing

Part 1: Ness Quotes

Part 2: Yaw Quotes

Part 2: Marcus Quotes

Marcus Character Timeline in Homegoing