Homegoing
Detailed Summary & Analysis
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Homegoing
byYaa Gyasi
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Effia is the daughter of Cobbe Otcher and Maame. Growing up in a Fante village on the Gold Coast, Effia does not know that she is Maame’s daughter. She is raised by Cobbe’s wife, Baaba, who is resentful of having to raise Effia and beats her often. Baaba conspires to have Effia marry the British officer James Collins even though Cobbe would prefer that Effia marry the village’s future chief, Abeeku Badu. Luckily, Effia and James Collins develop a good deal of affection for each other, but Effia is remains uncomfortable with James Collins’ participation in the slave trade. Still, she knows that she cannot return to her village because of Baaba’s cruelty, so she stays with James Collins and has a son, Quey, with him. Effia’s implicit acceptance of the slave trade and her unwitting betrayal of her half-sister Esi, who is sold from the dungeon of the castle in which Effia lives, haunts her branch of the family for seven generations. Her final descendant in the novel is Marjorie.
Effia Quotes in Homegoing
The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Effia or refer to Effia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1: EffiaQuotes
He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued.
Related Characters:Effia, Maame, Baaba, Cobbe Otcher
Related Symbols:Fire
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:3
Explanation and Analysis:
The need to call this thing “good” and this thing “bad,” this thing “white” and this thing “black,” was an impulse that Effia did not understand.
Related Characters:Effia, James Collins, Adwoa
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:23
Part 1: QueyQuotes
Quey had wanted to cry but that desire embarrassed him. He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father's whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast.
Related Characters:Effia, Quey, Marjorie, James Collins, Robert Clifton, Cudjo Sackee
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:56
This was how they lived there, in the bush: Eat or be eaten. Capture or be captured. Marry for protection. Quey would never go to Cudjo's village. He would not be weak. He was in the business of slavery, and sacrifices had to be made.
Related Characters:Effia, Quey, James Collins, Nana Yaa, Cudjo Sackee, Fiifi
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:69
Part 2: AkuaQuotes
In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight.
Related Characters:Effia, Esi, Akua / Crazy Woman , Maame
Related Symbols:Fire
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:177
Part 2: MarjorieQuotes
Her father had told her that the necklace was a part of their family history and she was to never take it off, never give it away. Now it reflected the ocean water before them, gold waves shimmering in the black stone.
Related Characters:Effia, Akua / Crazy Woman , Yaw, Marjorie, Maame
Related Symbols:Black Stones, Water and Boats
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:267
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: MarcusQuotes
How could he explain to Marjorie that he wasn’t supposed to be here? Alive. Free. That the fact that he had been born, that he wasn’t in a jail cell somewhere, was not by dint of his pulling himself up by the bootstraps, not by hard work or belief in the American Dream, but by mere chance.
Related Characters:Effia, Esi, Marjorie, Marcus
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:296
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Effia Quotes in Homegoing
The Homegoing quotes below are all either spoken by Effia or refer to Effia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1: EffiaQuotes
He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued.
Related Characters:Effia, Maame, Baaba, Cobbe Otcher
Related Symbols:Fire
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:3
Explanation and Analysis:
The need to call this thing “good” and this thing “bad,” this thing “white” and this thing “black,” was an impulse that Effia did not understand.
Related Characters:Effia, James Collins, Adwoa
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:23
Part 1: QueyQuotes
Quey had wanted to cry but that desire embarrassed him. He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father's whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast.
Related Characters:Effia, Quey, Marjorie, James Collins, Robert Clifton, Cudjo Sackee
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:56
This was how they lived there, in the bush: Eat or be eaten. Capture or be captured. Marry for protection. Quey would never go to Cudjo's village. He would not be weak. He was in the business of slavery, and sacrifices had to be made.
Related Characters:Effia, Quey, James Collins, Nana Yaa, Cudjo Sackee, Fiifi
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:69
Part 2: AkuaQuotes
In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight.
Related Characters:Effia, Esi, Akua / Crazy Woman , Maame
Related Symbols:Fire
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:177
Part 2: MarjorieQuotes
Her father had told her that the necklace was a part of their family history and she was to never take it off, never give it away. Now it reflected the ocean water before them, gold waves shimmering in the black stone.
Related Characters:Effia, Akua / Crazy Woman , Yaw, Marjorie, Maame
Related Symbols:Black Stones, Water and Boats
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:267
Part 2: MarcusQuotes
How could he explain to Marjorie that he wasn’t supposed to be here? Alive. Free. That the fact that he had been born, that he wasn’t in a jail cell somewhere, was not by dint of his pulling himself up by the bootstraps, not by hard work or belief in the American Dream, but by mere chance.
Related Characters:Effia, Esi, Marjorie, Marcus
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:296
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