Pox Party

 

As the book progresses up to page 159, Octavian begins to learn some hard truths. At the end of page 41 Octavian first learns of the status of him and his mother as purchased African American slaves. From that moment forward his views of himself and his white teachers change. Not long after Octavian first realizes his situation, Lord Cheldthorpe comes to visit the College of Lucidity. Lord Cheldthorpe is visiting the college to determine whether to continue to fund the operations of the college. He soon takes a liking to Octavian’s mother, but when he confronts her and asks to have her join him back in England, she refuses. This refusal resulted in the whipping of Octavian and his mother, something he had never been exposed to before. Things for Octavian get worse with the introduction of Mr. Sharpe, a horrible man, who arrives at Mr. Gitney’s house and immediately begins to shift the mission of the college. He removes the old numerical system in favor of individual names, severely limits Octavian’s readings, and begins him on a regiment of hard manual labor.

Octavian slowly begins to realize that he is no different than the other slaves and starts to identify with them. He forms a particularly strong bond with ‘Bono’. Octavian learns from him how to hide certain aspects of life from his white masters. Bono finds ways to trick his masters into giving him old clothing for instance. He also obtains books and asks Octavian to read then aloud to him after their masters have gone, further cementing their brotherly relationship.

Mr. Gitney approaches the arrival of Mr. Sharpe with mild discontent. Up to the moment that Mr. Sharpe is introduced, Mr. Gitney does not seem to fit the model of the ‘mad doctor’. He treats Octavian and his mother with kindness. Gitney acts as though he is a good man without racial prejudice but he will not speak out against the changes Mr. Sharpe has introduced in the college for fear of the removal of funding. This makes you wonder who is really in control and for what reason are these experiments being done? Furthermore, how would the change in the experiment have any scientific meaning? If the new mission of the experiment is to prove that Africans are only good at manual labor, then how can it be proven if none are given the opportunity of a European education as Octavian previously had?