43 pages • 1 hour read
Abeng
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
This chapter explores Clare’s paternal family history. Her father, James Arthur “Boy,” is the descendent of an English Earl’s youngest son, James Eduard Constable, who came to Jamaica as puisne (pronounced puny) justice in 1829 and became wealthy by establishing several plantations, starting with Paradise Plantation at Runaway Bay. His wife remained in England, eventually dying in childbirth. The justice’s descendants are proud of him for never impregnating a woman of color and for punishing his runaway slaves himself by whipping, hanging, and dismembering them. The Savage family obsessively focuses on the achievements of their white ancestors, ignoring their own mixed blood.
The justice’s son, Jack, receives an education at Cambridge and, after coming back to Jamaica, lives a life of leisure, reading the Western classics and drinking rum. He marries a woman from a similar background, Isabel Frazier, who gives birth to five girls and one boy. The Savage wealth diminishes gradually, and the family lives off of the sale of their lands. Eventually, Jack attempts to re-gain lost ground by buying a racehorse, but the scheme fails, forcing him to go, first, to Alaska and, then, to Panama, where he dies.
The original plantation house is still standing, even though they parceled the for vacation homes. Clare visits the place for the first time the year she turns 12 on one of her father’s business trips selling liquor. The once opulent mansion furnished with luxury objects from Europe is derelict. The only things remaining are the old wallpapers covered in salt and broken furniture.
Chapter 5 Summary
The justice forces an 18-year-old girl, Inez, to become his mistress. She is of mixed, Miskito Indian and Maroon, descent. After her initial rape, Inez becomes pregnant, but she is able to abort the baby with the help of a one-breasted wise woman. Inez remains at the plantation for several years planning her escape, and she eventually is able to leave and purchase land and tools for all of the slaves who will have nothing after emancipation. However, the justice burns most of his slaves after his efforts to stop the emancipation fail. His behavior is “not an isolated act on the eve of African freedom” (40).
Clare knows nothing of this part of her family’s history. She is disappointed by the plantation house, which seems small and broken, reminding her of Miss Havisham’s room from Great Expectations.
When someone purchases the plantation for vacation homes, the house becomes the flagship for the new development which advertises itself as atmospheric. Developers restore it with antique-looking furniture and mannequins in period costumes. They hire Black Jamaicans to stand around the remaining small field of sugar cane and talk about the island’s past.
Chapter 6 Summary
Clare’s father is the son of Jack’s daughter, Caroline, who travels to New York City in 1921 to become an actress, and a Sicilian iceman, who authorities eventually deport. Inventing a car crash to explain the absence of a husband, Caroline sends Boy back to Jamaica to her sister Henrietta. She eventually goes to Hollywood and dies there from an illness. Henrietta and her husband, Archie, are not “unkind people at all” (42), but they are alcoholics and immerse themselves in the myths surrounding the Savage family, lost to any sense of reality.
After his mother’s death, Boy’s impoverished alcoholic aunt and uncle adopt him. Like Caroline, he has “black, almost blue, hair. Curly hair. And green-green eyes” (42), as well as a prominent nose. He is intelligent and wins a scholarship to a Jesuit boarding school, where he becomes interested in mysticism and magic, believing in extraterrestrial life. When WWII begins, the British government drafts Boy and sends him to North Africa where he learns about Calvinism from his Scottish commanding officer. He feels drawn to the Presbyterian belief of the Elect—people whose names have been recorded before the beginning of time and would be saved no matter what. Boy is convinced that the Savages are members of the Elect and that real life for him will begin after death—he only needs to wait for his reward. Because of his special status, Boy does not feel the need to practice a pious lifestyle, which is meant for those who are not part of the Elect.
After the war, Boy meets Clare’s mother, Kitty Freeman, who has spent the war years working in D.C. They marry, despite opposition from her family.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In these chapters, British colonial rule appears through the despicable behavior of white men toward Black slaves and other people of color. Boy’s great grandfather is a rapist and a murderer, while his descendants are spendthrifts, living off of the human misery that was necessary to amass their family’s initial wealth and preserving, at the same time, their sense of superiority. The author reveals the hypocrisy and cruelty of the entire English system through the far-from-just acts of Boy’s great grandfather, who serves as a representative of the Crown. Ironically, his last name, Savage, is a more accurate representation of his true nature and marks him as morally inferior to his slaves. Together with the name, the Savage descendent inherit the justice’s moral failings.
Identity Nanny and Inez represent Black culture and identity. These two brave women of color are victims of the white people. Wisdom, bravery, and honor, in the novel, are, for the most part, personified as Black female attributes, while cruelty, incompetence, and intolerance are most often associated with male characters, Black and white alike.
Clare’s father follows this pattern and is a morally complacent person whose belief in his own spiritual superiority absolves him of any misdeeds.
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