Previous
Part 2, Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in James, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Speech, Performance, and Willful Ignorance
Identity, Narrative, and Agency
Racism, Dehumanization, and Hypocrisy
Innocence vs. Disillusionment
Family, Alliance, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Another enslaved man (Brock) discovers Jim and Norman in the engine room and tries to get them to leave. Norman pretends again to be Jim’s owner and tells Brock to mind his own business. Jim is not sure they can trust the man, even though he is enslaved. Brock returns to again insist that they leave the engine room, or else he will get into trouble. Norman asks where the passenger trunks are kept so he can change out of his wet clothes and investigate the upper decks as a white man. Brock tells them “Mistuh Corey” will throw him in the fire if they are caught, but another reprimand from Norman sends him away.
Since his interaction with Luke, Jim is more cautious around enslaved Black people, realizing he cannot assume they are allies. That Norman’s performance is enough to convince and control Brock (despite his disheveled appearance) highlights the power of his skin color. Brock’s actions suggest he is very loyal to his enslaver and views his job as essential.
Themes
Norman finds dry clothes in one of the trunks and heads to the upper decks to investigate. Brock tells Jim to help shovel coal into the engine, since he refuses to leave. Brock enjoys his work, smiling while he shovels. Even though there are no white people around, he says “massa” instead of “master,” which irks Jim. Brock suspects something is strange between Jim and Norman, who talk to each other like equals. Brock works alone in the engine room and claims to take short naps between shovels. He does not even leave the windowless room when the boat makes port. Jim asks when “Massa Corey” comes down, but Brock ignores him.
The immediate tension between Brock and Jim stems from Jim’s refusal to submit to Brock in his own realm. Brock himself seems to have committed so fully to his enslavement that his slave talk is not a performance but actually his normal dialect. Like Luke, Brock accepts his situation as good and right and has no desire for autonomy. While this may seem like devotion, it is possible that Brock, knowing that wishing for change will not actually change anything, throws himself into his work as a way of coping with unalterable reality.
Themes
Brock tells Jim the boiler has been making a new noise and shaking, but he doesn’t know why. A bell rings, and Brock excitedly fiddles with the boat’s wheels and levers. The boiler makes a sound like a woman crying, but Brock insists Corey doesn’t need to know about this. Corey leaves food for Brock outside the door every day. Brock begins to sing about being a slave on the boat while Jim rests. Jim thinks of Norman and his own ever-present anger. He wakes to find Brock eating some cornbread and asks if he told Corey about him. Brock avoids the question, confirming Jim’s suspicion that the master does not even talk to Brock, treating him like a dog.
The more Brock talks about never leaving the engine room, the more Jim suspects that Corey exists only in the other man’s imagination. Brock’s fervent enthusiasm for his work disturbs Jim, who is beginning to view the other man as both an enemy and the inevitable result of slavery’s vicious dehumanization. His anger seems to be directed less at Brock than at the immoral and violent system that broke him down into such a submissive state.
Themes
Norman returns from the upper decks. Jim asks him what he found, provoking Brock’s scrutiny. He shovels coal with increased fervor as the two men talk. Emmett is on the boat, and Norman thinks the trombonist Cassidy may have recognized him. The boat itself is packed with people fleeing home to the north—the slave states are trying to leave the union, and there are rumors of war. Jim reports that Brock loves being a slave, and he shares his suspicion that “Massa Corey” does not exist, or is long dead. Brock continues to shovel coal as the boiler emits a sustained whine. Norman says that something is wrong.
It is worth noting that Jim is more comfortable breaking character around Brock, who poses less of a threat than a white person noticing Jim’s performance. The potential war does not concern Jim—here again, the novel calls attention to the way Jim is enslaved wherever he goes, his identity unchanged by the possibility of war. Jim’s speculation that Corey is a figment of Brock’s imagination shows how completely the other man has been subjugated, requiring no supervision to continue his work.
Themes
Get the entire James LitChart as a printable PDF.
