The Salt Roads (novel) - Major Themes

Major Themes

Enslavement - The three main characters are essentially the victims of enslavement in many forms. Mer is a slave on a plantation, to live out the rest of her days harvesting sugar cane off the farm of Seigneur Simenon. Her fellow Genen turn to seditious, violent measures to change their position; however, Mer maintains a fatalistic view of her station and what rebellion could offer. Instead of rising up, she obtains freedom through death. She believes that the only way they can escape enslavement and prevent more slaves from taking their place by keeping their place and doing what is told, eventually seeking the escape they so wish by passing on to the next life. She learns to attain satisfaction through her enslavement through a sense of duty. She fulfills Lasirén's request by helping those in need on the plantation, seeking release through her position and her healing in the name of her gods.

Jeanne is an entertainer, enslaved by the restrictions of her skin color and the limited opportunities they offer. She is constantly reminded of her inadequacy and low social status, rendering her helpless in many ways. Her bonds are her biracial heritage, and her labor, being mistress to a wealthy man. She is also a slave, in a sense, to her lover, Charles Baudelaire. Their relationship is run by money and security. She initially accepts his advances because of her need to support her ailing mother.

Thais is a slave to Tausiris, a tavern owner, and is forced into prostitution and entertainment by her master. She uses her body as currency, trading it to buy her way away from Alexandria to Aelia Capitolina and essentially everything from food to transportation as well. However, she doesn't view this as her downfall or her African heritage as a problem, but instead finds ways of finding worth in them. She is not ashamed, even after her revelation with Lasirén, in her prostitution, but revels in her own independence and decision to partake in it.

Loss of identity - Jeanne, in an attempt to escape the lifestyle that so embodied lower-class, African women of her time, tries to cover her sense of shame with ornate clothing, fancy hair, and powdered faces. However, her mistrust and denouncement of her own culture and identity lead to her own sense of dissatisfaction and lack of self-worth. She believes her life would have been better and happier if she had lighter skin. However, it is when Jeanne is reduced to her unglamorous, natural self that she can truly understand her life.

Racism - Hopkinson deals with the problem of racism in her novel by addressing its ability to denigrate and denounce men and especially women of African heritage. Through the use of her characters, she displays her belief that, despite their hardships and problems, African women must endure them and be proud of their heritage and culture. When Jeanne tries to escape her own ethnic background, she finds herself lacking still, in spite of her attempts to appear white. Her unhappiness stems from her unwillingness to accept her own roots and embrace the color of her skin. Mer, unlike her fellow slaves, knows that rebellion will not be a quick solution to their problems. Instead, she bides her time, giving what help and counsel she can, and helping the slaves fight back, not through insurrection, but through livelihood and pride in their culture.

There are also traces of racism within the African race itself. Snide comments are made about the shade of skin, implying that the lighter you were, the higher you were ranked in class. This coincides with all the houseworkers, like Marie-Claire, being lighther than their fellow slaves who worked out in the fields under the sun all day. The desire for lighter skin is also seen through Jeanne and Lisette after they look in the chamber pot for their future loves.
"Your mother would name her monstrous, it seems, not beautiful. Your mothe would think the ginger woman's pale brown skin too near the colour of dirt" (Lasiren to Jeanne, pg. 56).
"I looked on this fair-skin, soft-hand house girl, still fainting from her labour" (Mer to Georgine after the birth, pg. 33).
"Isn't that what she wanted? A cream-coloured child?"
"Matant, the baby would have gotten browner? If he lived?" "Maybe so. If you had let him run too much in the sun." "No. I would have made him wear a hat every time he went out. Wouldn't want him to get black. Only... If he had got a little bit of brown to him, not too much, maybe he would see me in his face that way, know who's his mother" (Georgine and Mer on the color of Georgine's newborn's skin, pg. 34).
"Oh! It's not true! It's not! He was so foul, Lemer." She wept. "Black as the devil! I am to be wedded to a black, and toil all my days killing pigs, and have nigger babies" (Lisette to Jeanne after her vision in the pot, pg. 22).

Feminism - Mer, Jeanne, and Thais all break the typical roles bounded to a woman. Mer, respected by all enslaved on her plantation, is the closest thing the Ginen have to a doctor. She is strong and responsible, and proudly serves as a leader. She is often depicted as stronger and wiser than the men in the field; breaking away from the stereotypical slave woman.

Jeanne counters the dominance often associated with males in literature. When loving Charles, she takes the upper hand and has full control. "I will show you how to prepare a woman--nay, even a man, should you come to that--so that they are eager and ready for your embrace" (pg. 149).

Thais has a wild and free spirit, and she follows it on a long journey across the sea. Unlike the other female prostitutes who feel bound for life, Thais demonstrates risk-taking by having the courage to quickly pack and leave. She does not choose to stay and have her life lived under someone else, but instead takes control.