The Pox Party

Octavian is an African boy, son of an African princess. Upon his birth he is submitted into a study that tests the limits to his knowledge and education. He is raised differently from all other children and is motivated by his instructors to learn and attain vast amounts of information, which seem far beyond the capacities of a boy his age. After some time, the funding of the experiment led by Mr. Gitney (03-01) is received from a new sponsor and the methods of the experiments are changed. The experiment is now led by a Mr. Sharpe who chooses to have Octavian trained by Bono to behave and act as a traditional slave. All of Octavian's previous studies are discarded with the exception of Greek and Latin. The goal of Mr. Sharpe's experiment, as stated on page 169 is to prove "the inequality of African capacities." Mr Sharpe wants to prove that Africans are not as capable as whites to learn equally challenging material. He wants to prove that they are born to be slaves and nothing else. "For the child to have a spine, his back must first be broken." This line on page 170, referring to Africans, is saying that Africans must be put to work in order to be, in a sense, human.

I feel that the stories that Dr. Trefusis has Octavian read is his way of trying to tell Octavian to run away and/or revolt as many infamous slaves have done in the past such as Spartacus. Dr. Trefusis wants Octavian to know how much better off slaves were many years before and how poorly he was treated today in comparison. Those slaves that Octavian learned of had privileges and responsibilities that actually had a greater value besides hard labor. They used for their minds, rather than their muscle.

Mr. Gitney infecting people with pox reminds me of when we talked about (I believe it was) John Hunter who infected himself with gonorrhea in order to study it. A very unusual and disgusting method, but a fine way to obtain specimens nonetheless.

In the last pages of our required reading we learn that Octavian's mom dies of her pox infection and is dissected by scientists. Before her death, her features can not be distinguished as hers due to the severity of her infections. Upon the dissection of his mother, Octavian bursts into the room with his mom open on the table and he begins to attack Mr. Sharpe. Octavian then runs away from the house and is sought after by Mr. Gitney's brother for a prize of five pounds.

Octavians mom was infected with pox by Mr. Gitney, which led to her death. Was her death planned by Mr. Gitney and/or Mr. Sharpe in order to end the experimentation of Octavian knowing that he would run away?

Towards the end of our assigned reading, we learn that Mr. Gitney had loved Cassiopeia all along. If this is true, why did he choose to infect her with pox?


I apologize for the lateness of my entry. I had not yet finished the reading as of 5:00PM this evening.