Bondage
Throughout the novel, there is frequent imagery surrounding bondage and slavery. As Annis goes deeper South, there is more intense and violent slavery-related imagery, signaling the depraved conditions many slaves had to endure.
Religion
Let Us Descend is filled with religious imagery, particularly imagery related to Hell and the Devil. As Annis' conditions grow more dangerous and graver, that kind of imagery becomes more common. For example, when Annis is sold into slavery by her father, that imagery crops up frequently.
Ancestral Africa
As Annis starts to discover more about herself and her identity, she draws upon memories of ancestral Africa and her warrior grandmother. That kind of imagery gives her strength, but it also reinforces her sense of place and her sense of belonging in a community.
Plantation
Plantation imagery, which is often associated with slavery, symbolizes the power white slavers had over the Black people they enslaved. That imagery, which signals the evil spirits of the enslavers, also invokes fear in the hearts of the enslaved.
