Character Study Guide for Fred DAguiars

The Longest Memory

Ha Yeon Lee 12B
English A2

Chapel

Role in the story

-The only son of the most trusted and obedient slave called Whitechapel on the
Virginian plantation

-Powerless, young slave with a desire to escape from the masters plantation and live
in a Paradise with Lydia

-Relationship with other characters:

married
couple rape
Whitechapel Cook Sanders Senior

love half
Lydia relationship brother
Sanders Junior
Masters daughter Chapel Plantations overseer

-teaches Chapel English -administers 200 lashes

(poems, sonnets, plays) -ends up killing Chapel in
-plans to escape with Chapel to the North front of all the other slaves
-Acts as a pivotal drive of the plot:

1
Desire of freedom 2 Mothers (Cook) death 3 Lydias plan 4 Escape from the
plantation 5
Whitechapel revealing Chapels whereabouts 6
Apprehension
(brought back to the Virginian plantation) 200 lashes 8 Death
7

Examples
1
Father, I am running. I feel joy; not fear. (pg. 64)
-From Chapter 5. Chapel

2
We were both with her when she died. I held her head, he watched her lips. We
cried/But made no sound and made no moves. Except to wipe our eyes and blow our
noses. (pg. 64)

-From Chapter 5. Chapel

3
I urge him to think about the North. I relate my brothers story again, this time
furnishing him with every detail as it was told to me. (pg. 97)
-From Chapter 10. Lydia

4
Ordinarily, I would have let you (Sanders Junior) run the plantation and hold
dominion over the fate of a runaway. He was no ordinary runaway. I thought you
knew. Your father was supposed to inform you and that was the end of it. No one was
to raise the matter ever again. (pg. 34)
-From Chapter 2. Mr. Whitechapel

5
It was the best I could hope for, my sons safe return, but the house slaves cast me
such disdainful looks you would believe Id thrown my sons to the lionsThey
seemed as angry at me for annoying him (the master) as for the fact that Id betrayed
the whereabouts of my son. (pg.18)
-From Chapter 1. Mr. Whitechapel

6
Then I recognized one piece because it moved in a way Id seen countless times
before and had stopped noticing because it was so familiar. There was a moment
when the piece sprouted arms, legs, a head, a body and in a flicker, the face of my
son: open mouthed, tear stained, bruised, but alive. (pg. 20)
-From Chapter 1. Whitechapel

7
There is no way this nigger is not going to face the usual punishment for this
crime. An example must be set. Not to punish him now in the appropriate way would
be an outrage against this entire plantation. I am the overseer. (pg. 24)
-From Chapter 1. Whitechapel
 8
The last time I cried was over the pointless death of a boy I loved as my own.
(pg. 1)
-From Prologue. Remembering

-Symbolism:

Virginian Plantation = fetter, restraint,

unjust reality runaway
Tragic death

Chapel = new generation, rebellion,

change

shows to the reader that back in the 1800s freedom for slaves was
equal to death

Thinks freedom is death (pg. 27)

-From Chapter 1. Whitechapel

opposition between two different ideas:

Rebellion, Betrayal Trust, Loyalty

Relation to themes

Choices and consequences

-Whitechapels decision to inform his mater of Chapels whereabouts

This shows the reader one of the important ironies the selfishness of parents.
While they want to keep their children beside for protection and safety, they
can actually become the ones who put their children to dangers.

-Chapels decision to escape with Lydia

Since Chapel is the only educated slave, he soon realizes the injustice of the
slavery system and wants to live like any normal teenage boy in England.
However, the reality does not allow Chapel to love a white girl, to learn
English and know how to write.

Cruelty of slavery
-society going astray due to slavery
-social customs and economic systems all based on slavery
-slavery on the Virginian plantation trap (no escape)
 Realization of doomed fate: beyond anyones control

-Even Whitechapel, who is known as the most respected slave, cannot change
the mind of the overseer. It is simply the brutal reality that leads to the tragic
event death of his son.

Form/style of writing

romantic form: poetry

-couplets rhyming
ex) light, white
church, birch
laugh, calf
neck, check
saw, raw
(pg. 56-7)
-From Chapter 5. Chapel

-composed of 76 stanzas
(one stanza similar to dramatic monologue, most stanzas in couplets or triplets)

-enjambment (run-on sentences)

ex) See/What I can do and you cant until I asked her how/For the umpteenth
time and she agreed to show/Me how, if I promised not to tell a single soul
(pg. 59)
-From Chapter 5. Chapel

-use of rhetorical questions to engage the reader and emphasize his point
ex) Die of hunger, hard work and the whip. Do you hear?...Are you clear?
(pg. 61)
-From Chapter 5. Chapel

-control of pace (for varying rhythm)

*short, choppy sentences (impact, tension)
ex) At my peril. As he lashed, he spokeDo not, I repeatAgain. (pg.61)

*long, narrative sentences (descriptive, readers sympathy) with use of

imagery like metaphor
ex) We gasped aloud together, the book leapt/From my lap to the floor
scattering its leaves,/And we were statues with dropped jaws/Waiting for her
father to release the curse/With his words. (pg. 61)
-From Chapter 5. Chapel
reveals his deep love for literature

influenced by Lydias teaching

confident and determined tone