Anti-Colonialism
The dark hand of colonialism is everywhere in the story of Almeyda that is told in this book. And the persistent thematic undertone throughout her narrative is that no matter how hard she tries and no matter how far she runs away from it, there is simply no escaping its sinister specter which lurks over the entire world as it existed then. The protagonist’s story begins with the life of young slavery on a plantation and even when she briefly finds respite in the title settlement for fugitive slaves, the escape is only temporary. Like her heroine, the author of the novel is also a black woman and the fact that this novel was published after a twenty-year gap between the publication of her last novel suggests a strong parallel to their stories of that inevitably involves dealing with dark matter of colonialism in one way or another.
Enduring Love
What is the definition of a true, enduring love? One example through demonstration might be the commitment of the story’s protagonist, Almeyda, to resist and reject the idea that her husband is dead when she has not seen the body and to commit to a perilous quest to enter in the heart of the darkness of Brazil at the height of its colonial power to search for him despite not knowing the circumstances of his going missing in action during fierce battling. This element of the story does not kick in until the last section and it is not resolved in a manner that is likely to please everyone which only goes to further enhance the thematic significance of where love stands in relation to the simple act of survival and the great choice to seek self-determination. One definition of true love might be, therefore, that love which endures even through physical separation.
The Search for Self-Determination
Underlying everything that takes place in the story of Almeyda is the desire that lies inside almost every human to become beings of self-determination. While existing within most of us, this desire burns far more brightly in some than others. Some people, for whatever reason, can more readily accept the conditions of life that denies them any but the most basic ability to determine for themselves how they will live. Almeyda represents that select few that seem to be born with an organic resistance to this docile acceptance. Her entire life becomes symbolic of the struggle to say to the forces of oppression like colonialist overseers that they will never stop you from fighting for that freedom.
