The Last Runway, Tracy Chevalier explores the struggles of an oppressed minority group, specifically a struggling runaway and slave, in a tainted era with prominent arguments surrounding slavery.
Honor Bright was born in 1833 in Dorset County, Massachusetts to Ralph and Martha Bright, a Quaker family who have been wed for thirty years and plan to spend their remaining days making amends for previous irresponsible uses of their wealth; theirs was destined for "greater works", but wealth and power go hand-in-hand as they slowly lose their status and disposable income due to repurposing of paper assets for bookkeeping. A spiritual grace which runs all throughout the Quakers seems to have left their family in favor of better circumstances awaiting them elsewhere. Honor "secretly [faces] independence" from aging parents as well as social stigmas of illegitimacy. To be an outcast and separate from their privileged, wealthy family's ideals and norms, she travels to the new world with her younger sister, Jessica, to prove herself and for an easier life. Both sisters were hardened to the American lifestyle as it encompassed illiberal regimes such as slavery and institutional discrimination (as an 18th century naturalized French citizen her innate pride prevented her from owning slaves if ever demanded). Each sister tried to carve an identity for themselves in the face of colonialization and brutality, but here the brutal events that came to haunt them occurred in another. To honor memory and duty alone, Honour follows slave Catherine Oates and sets out with her curiosity to find the sort of morally supportive influences she is all too familiar with. It takes considerable work, both physically and mentally, to survive in this radical environment. Not only did the author explore novel characteristics to her own territory, but she also attempted to widen to scope under the challenges faced by runaways; the reality behind deportation and slavery compared with the made-for-television fairytale; the dark world of poverty - namely the shared threat of exploitation and negligence to survive. These are just a few of the complexities the reader must delve into upon the first few pages. The author tackles these challenges while balancing formality and content, using the characters presented as a veritable taxonomy for the myriad human emotions - hopeful, hopeless, or spiteful, hopeful, hostile, resentful - which plague an emigration of the downtrodden minority. The opening paragraphs contain most of this characterization, demonstrating distinct ways of thinking and how an outsider's world might aid or hinder a new immigrant.
Электронная Книга «The Last Runaway» написана автором Tracy Chevalier в году.
Минимальный возраст читателя: 0
Язык: Английский
ISBN: 9780007517312
Описание книги от Tracy Chevalier
‘The best thing she's written since Girl with a Pearl Earring’ Rose TremainThe stunning novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn ideas into actions.
