500 word response about the Homegoing novel

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Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi

Summary Spoiler Alert: The following summary and discussion questions reveal plot details that some readers

may prefer to encounter as surprises.

Homegoing follows the lives of half-sisters, Effia and Esi, born unknown to one another in 18th-century

West Africa. Slavery binds their blood, its legacy inscribed on their descendants over three centuries of

African and African-American experience.

Effia is born in Fanteland on the night of a terrible fire; considered cursed, she is married off to the

governor of the nearby British colony. She lives well at Cape Coast Castle, the huge British fort and

slave port. Effia learns that her real birth mother was an Asante woman enslaved by her father, who

escaped during the fire. (We later learn that her name is Maaman. After her escape, she married an

Asante leader and bore a second daughter: Esi.) As the British inflame tribal rivalries, Fante and Asante

raid one another capturing prisoners to sell to the whites.

Effia's son Quey continues his father's slave trade, advising the Fante leaders, Badu and Fiifi (Quey's

uncle). Ever-hungry for gold and glory, they rashly kidnap the Asante king's daughter and Quey must

marry her to avert war with the Asante. Their unhappy marriage convinces their son, James, to reject

the slave trade. He runs away with an Asante woman. The star-crossed lovers flee deep into

Asanteland, eking out a living as farmers. Abena, their daughter, blames her parents' nameless past for

her lack of suitors. Shamed by a lover's final rejection, she runs away to a mission to give birth to her

daughter, Akua.

Abused for years by the priest, at sixteen Akua escapes the mission to marry Asamoah, an Asante

warrior; soon they have two young daughters. The British exile the Asante king. As the enraged Asante

nation rises up to do battle, Akua has terrible visions of a fire-woman; they worsen over the months

Asamoah is away at war. Angry over Akua's screaming nightmares, her mother-in-law locks her up

without food or water. Asamoah, badly wounded, returns a week later. She is saved, but imprisonment

has shattered her mind. They console one another and conceive a son, Yaw. Tragically, just after Yaw's

birth Akua is "possessed" by the fire-woman and sets fire to her children. Only Yaw survives. Asamoah

defends her, telling the villagers she must live to raise his son.

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Badly scarred, Yaw is a reserved, scholarly, and kind. He marries late in life and dotes on his daughter

Marjorie. She spends many summers with her "crazy" grandmother Akua, who has gradually recovered

her senses (and been granted some forgiveness by Yaw). Inspired by Akua's old stories, Marjorie

becomes a gifted writer. She meets a fellow grad student named Marcus and they visit Cape Coast

Castle together. Unaware of their distant blood ties, they bring Effia and Esi's stories full circle.

Meanwhile, Esi grows up in Asanteland. A Fante girl, captured and enslaved as their house-girl, is the

one that tells Esi her own mother was a slave in Fanteland. Contrite, Esi innocently agrees to send a

secret message to the girl's father. Fante warriors arrive, and Esi is soon imprisoned as "cargo" in the

dungeons of the very fort where Effia lives. She is raped by a soldier and shipped to America for sale.

Esi's daughter Ness endures all the horrors of slavery. Resolving that her son Kojo will be free, she

sacrifices herself to ensure his escape.

In Baltimore, "Jo" lives free under faked papers. His wife Anna's are real, but that matters little after

the Fugitive Slave Act passes: Anna, pregnant, is kidnapped and sold as a slave. Their son H, born a

slave, becomes a coal miner after the Civil War. Active in the labor unions, H brings his daughter Willie

to sing the national anthem at union meetings. There she meets Robert Carson, the lightest-skinned

black man she has ever seen. They marry and move to Harlem, where Willie looks forward to singing in

jazz clubs. While Club owners tell Willie she's "too black" to be onstage, Robert eagerly embraces his

ability to pass as white. The conflict drives them apart. Willie struggles to raise their son Carson alone,

but finds renewed joy singing in her church's choir.

Carson (aka "Sonny") grows up angry over the injustices blacks still face at every turn. As a housing rep

for the NAACP in Harlem, he is frequently jailed for his activism. Increasingly demoralized, Sonny turns

to drugs. His involvement with a sultry but self-destructive jazz singer produces a child, Marcus.

Marcus is a PhD student at Stanford when he spots a fascinating young woman named Marjorie. In the

final chapter, he and Marjorie travel to Ghana together. A sense of promise hangs in the air as they

splash in the ocean beside Cape Coast Castle.

Discussion Questions The discussion points offered here should spark discussion, but are not all there is to say. Enjoy your

discussion -- starting with these ideas!

• What does fire symbolize throughout the novel?

• Which characters do you find most -- or least -- sympathetic and why?

• What does the novel say about women's relationships with one another?

• The novel critiques slavery as universally wrong -- how does it explore the ways it causes harm

within Fante and Asante cultures?

• What is the role of religion and spirituality in the novel?

• How do the actions of "Big Men" among the Fante/Asante impact characters' lives?

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About the Author Born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, Yaa Gyasi graduated with a degree in English from

Stanford University and completed her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short stories have

appeared in numerous journals, including African American Review, Callaloo, and Guernica. Gyasi

garnered international acclaim after the 2015 London Book Fair, when North American publishing

rights for her debut novel, Homegoing (2016), were rumored to have sold for a remarkable seven-

figure sum.