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Chapter 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in March, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racial Injustice and the Horrors of Slavery
Moral Complexity and the Limits of Idealism
The Cost of War
Silence, Secrets, and Omissions
Redemption
Summary
Analysis
Back in the present, Mr. March receives a letter from Margaret along with some socks she and his daughters have knitted for him. He writes back to Margaret, thanking her for the package. In his letter, he describes the dedication of a woman working in the field hospital, a formerly enslaved person who refuses to leave her elderly master despite being offered freedom and a paid position in a Washington hospital. March sees her as a model of compassion and forgiveness, qualities he hopes his daughters will emulate. The woman he describes is Grace and the man is Mr. Clement, though he does not divulge this information to Margaret.
March turns Grace into a moral example without revealing the history that gives her story weight. He praises her forgiveness while hiding the violence she endured and his own role in it. The letter becomes another performance—this time for Margaret and the girls. He wants them to see Grace’s sacrifice as noble, but he avoids telling them how that sacrifice was forced upon her. By leaving out the details, he protects his image as a man who admires goodness, rather than confronting the fact that he once stood silent while Grace was brutalized.
Active
Themes
Lying in the crowded room that was once Mrs. Clement’s sitting room, March draws out a small silk envelope containing locks of his daughters’ hair. He lovingly examines each curl, recalling their personalities. Then, his thoughts turn to the painful memory of his time at the Clement estate. He reflects on his youthful infatuation with Mr. Clement’s wealth and intellect, which blinded him to the cruelty of slavery. March had willingly ignored the suffering around him for the sake of intellectual conversation and comfort, a choice that now fills him with shame.
The locks of hair represent safety, purity, and the life March left behind. Meanwhile, the plantation represents everything March chose to overlook. March admits that he allowed himself to be seduced by power and polish, ignoring at the time that a plantation that enslaved people was actually nothing to admire. This is the first time he directly acknowledges his own failure.
Active
Themes
In a flashback, after being expelled from the Clement estate, March continues his work as a peddler, but his perspective changes. He becomes more aware of the horrors of slavery, especially after witnessing a slave auction in Petersburg, where two young children are sold away from their mother. Overwhelmed by the hypocrisy of a nearby church preaching charity while people are auctioned off next door, he publicly criticizes the congregation’s indifference. Irritated, the congregation asks him to leave. These experiences transform his views, driving him to speak out against slavery whenever possible.
Active
Themes
Over time, March’s fortunes improve. He builds a successful peddling business, eventually selling it for a profit and buying a new home for his parents. His success leads to financial security and a life of intellectual pursuit in Boston, where he gains a reputation as a lecturer and preacher. Yet even with his achievements, the memory of Grace and the suffering he witnessed at the Clement estate continues to haunt him, a shame he has never fully shared with Margaret.
Active
Themes
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March returns to the present where he is working in the overcrowded, makeshift hospital. He moves among the wounded, tending to their needs. During his duties, he encounters Grace again, now older but still dignified, tending to the wounded with the same compassion and strength he remembers. Despite being offered freedom and a paid position in Washington, she has chosen to remain with her former master, the now feeble, nearly unrecognizable Mr. Clement.
Active
Themes
Grace tells March of the estate’s tragic decline. The once-thriving estate has fallen into ruin, its fields neglected, and its enslaved people sold away to pay debts. Grace herself has been left to manage the crumbling household, caring for the frail Mr. Clement, who barely recognizes the world around him. When March asks why Grace would stay back to care for a man who treated her so poorly, Grace reveals that she is Clement’s daughter. After Grace was born, Clement sold Grace’s mother to another slave owner. Grace also says that Mr. Clement’s only son died in an accident, so he is not around to help care for Clement or the plantation.
Active
Themes
Grace also reveals the scars on her back—the brutal evidence of the whipping March witnessed years before, a punishment he feels responsible for. Overwhelmed with guilt, March falls to his knees, apologizing. However, Grace is not angry with him. Instead, she gently holds him close to her. In this moment, March feels an intense attraction to Grace, despite the subject matter at hand.
