43 pages • 1 hour read
Abeng
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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
This chapter goes into more detail about Clare’s family. During the summer, she lives with her maternal grandmother while her younger sister goes to another relative. Even though her parents live together, they often have loud and bitter arguments. Boy is never physically violent, but he often repeats “I won’t kill your mother—not tonight,” which makes Clare worried that he might forget to say it some day and Kitty will die (51).
Clare’s parents have very different upbringings and personalities, exemplified by their respective attitudes toward town and country. Boy is a city man, while Kitty likes the countryside. She “came alive only in the bush” (49), while Boy “armed himself against it, carrying newspapers, books, and liquor.” Kitty is emotionally unavailable to her children because she did not have an affectionate relationship with her parents. She seems to direct all her passion towards Boy and their shouting arguments. Even when Kitty takes Clare with her to the bush and passes down her knowledge of herbs and other folklore, she is distant and does not show physical affection. While Clare tells herself it is enough that the two of them are together, she sometimes fantasizes about being a baby in her mother’s arms and nursing at her breast the way she sees women nursing their young children on the side of the road.
On their way back to Kingston after a visit to the country, on one occasion, the family overtakes a funeral procession singing in some unknown African language. Kitty is full of pity for the stranger who has passed away and is respectful of the old customs, but Boy dismisses her reverence. Kitty doesn’t pity her own family, but she pities strangers. Every month, she saves some of her salary and buys food to take to the poor out in the countryside.
Chapter 8 Summary
When Kitty and Boy met at a garden party at the Governor’s house, she was 19 and he was 23. Clare’s maternal side of the family is “red”—a mix of white and Black (54). The Freemans own a small farm where they grow sugar and food.
Clare is visiting her grandmother in August. Her friend, Zoe, is away, and Clare’s grandmother allows her to play with her cousin, Joshua, but only if they remain in separate spaces—Clare on the porch and Joshua in the yard. Joshua is 14, lives in a one-room addition to the house, and works full time for Miss Mattie. His half-brother, Ben, who is the same age, goes to school. Since Miss Mattie’s family has slaughtered a pig, which is an important social event not unlike a wedding, all the neighbors, as well as Ben, come to visit. The women wear their finest clothes. Based on their jewelry, it is possible to guess a woman’s social standing; those who have more bangles and better earrings are on the porch with Miss Mattie, and those without earrings or only a few bracelets stay in the yard. Both groups of women talk amongst themselves, but there is almost no mixing between them.
Clare does not want to be inside with the women as they keep touching her and asking her about life in Kingston. She is “tall for her age, lanky” with “wavy chestnut hair” and green eyes, which make her stand out (61). The girl wants to play with her cousins in the backyard, but she is supposed to stay in the kitchen, and they ignore her in favor of roasting and sharing the pig’s genitals. Hurt by Joshua’s indifference after having played with him the day before and desiring to avoid the women, Clare slips out of the house.
Chapter 9 Summary
After escaping from her grandmother’s house, Clare encounters Mad Hannah, a woman who has become mentally unstable after her only child, Clinton, drowned. Clinton “preferred the company of his mama to any other woman” (63), so when his leg cramped in the water, no one helped him. Likewise, his mother had to carry his body and prepare him for the funeral all alone. Everyone in the community blames Mad Hannah, claiming that if she were not “fool-fool,” her son would not have become “sissy-sissy,” removing themselves “from any responsibility to Mad Hannah and her son” (65-66).
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
These chapters illustrate how a society shaped by slavery and racial division becomes cruel and unfeeling even towards locals. Miss Hannah and her son are well known to their neighbors, but because they do not fit in with the social norms, people distance themselves from them and their misfortunes, blaming the sufferers for their pain. The same process of distancing and lack of empathy informs most other relationships on the island, as well, perpetuating an oppressive social order.
The rigidity of social norms extends beyond race to include gender. Women, and especially Black women, are the group that has to endure some of the harshest expectations and abide by the strictest rules. Women are at the mercy of their husbands who often become alcoholics or gamblers because of their hopeless existence. Black women can easily become victims of rape or face criticism if their behavior is perceived to be “fool-fool” (65). While having a more privileged place in society, men are also victims of the rigid social order. They are supposed to be the bread winners and protectors of the family. However, living in a place that has no prospects for people of color forces men to feel disenfranchised and powerless. To establish their masculinity, young boys, such as Joshua and Ben, might play make-believe and consume a pig’s penis, but older men attempt to empower themselves by gambling, having multiple extramarital affairs, or by forcing their wills on those in a weaker position. Alternatively, if their attempts to feel in control fail, men, most often, become alcoholics.
These chapters also outline the conflict between the white and Black cultures that shapes Clare’s life. She loves both her parents, but their opposing worldviews cause her confusion and insecurity. Boy insists that she is white because of his belief in his family’s superiority. Kitty does not oppose Boy’s behavior, even though she is secretly angry and bitter, becoming a tacit enabler of Boy’s racism. Clare’s mother values Black culture and loves the people from the countryside, but she isolates her older daughter from these feelings, probably because Clare is light-skinned and would have a better life by integrating into white society.
The unhealthy relationship between mother and daughter comes to the forefront when Clare expresses her desire to be nursed, despite her being 12, and her jealousy over her younger sister who needs Kitty more than her.
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