Character Clues
Character Analysis
Thoughts and Opinions
Well, let's see… Octavian is brought up under tutors in philosophy, Greek, Latin, math, science, plus he's writing his autobiography. How can he not be characterized by his thoughts and opinions? In fact, his thoughts and opinions are central to his goal of proving how equal—even superior—he is intellectually to white people, thereby disproving the flawed (and super racist) arguments for slavery. Check out this example of his thoughts and opinions, at their logical height:
The Africans amongst us risked our lives for liberty, and yet had no assurance liberty would be ours; our pay, in many cases, came not to us, but to our owners—for it was reckoned that we belonged to them, and so our labor was theirs, so they should receive compensation for our absence from their farms, their dining-rooms, and their cellars. (4.9.12)
In one short paragraph, Octavian gets at the fundamental hypocrisy of the Patriots' cause: they want liberty even as they use slaves to help them fight the war to overthrow British rule. Ugh, right? Octavian is smart enough to see this clearly, so why can't these white Patriots and Sons of Liberty see it too? Good thing we're in Octavian's head mostly instead of theirs.
Speech and Dialogue
When you've got a house full of philosophers, you'd best bet a conversation isn't just a conversation. In fact, conversation at the College is all about showing how smart you are, and therefore, how powerful. That's why the final dialogue between Octavian and Mr. Sharpe is so satisfying. Octavian shows his superior intellect by out-reasoning Mr. Sharpe, the arrogant blowhard:
"They are not crimes," said Mr. Sharpe. "Your escape is a crime."
"How?"
"It is theft of my property. Your labor belongs to me."
"When did I sell it?"
"Your body belongs to me."
"When did I—"
"Good God! How!" yelled Mr. Sharpe, striding to the door and unlocking it. "Put the mask back on him! I do not need to argue points with a specimen." (4.12.53-59)
The only way Mr. Sharpe can assert his power over Octavian is by shutting him up with an iron mask. He can't win by logic because his logic is clearly flawed, and we recognize how much Octavian has grown up through his willingness to defend himself.
While Octavian wins the battle here, though, he doesn't win the war—he still isn't free. Because of this, speech and dialogue also show the limits of a character. Mr. Sharpe may reach his logical limit, but Octavian can't liberate himself with words alone.
Social Status
Everything in the book goes back to social status, especially the clear division between slaves and slave-masters. But even within these two groups, there are a lot of subtle divisions.
For the slave-masters, you've got Mr. Gitney, who owns the College slaves and has power over them for the first half of the book. But because he just can't bring in the money and he isn't exactly a power-hungry character, Mr. Sharpe takes over and becomes the "master" of Mr. Gitney too.
So one way to look at how social status reveals character is to see how hard that character tries to hang on to his or her place in the household.
For example, Cassiopeia is clearly beyond house-slave status under Mr. Gitney's rule. The fact that she gives airs and attitude once Mr. Sharpe takes over indicates her need for the kind of adoration men shower on her—she knows what it means to be an ordinary slave, and she'll do anything to pretend that she isn't that.
Octavian, on the other hand, isn't so willing to escape into romantic fantasies as his mother is. His discomfort comes from the fact that he has to shuttle back and forth between the classes since he's in such a unique situation as an educated, special slave—and this movement makes clear to him how superficial and silly slave-masters can be. His willingness to let all of that go, to want to hang out with Bono and the other slaves or change his clothes to more normal fare, shows where his politics lie—with the slaves and with freedom, at any cost.
Names
You've got characters named after Roman emperors (Octavian), mythological Greek characters (Cassiopeia), and—strangest of all—numbers. So clearly names mean something in this book.
Mr. Gitney's (or, we should say, Mr. 03-01's) attempt to make naming completely objective—a pure, numerical system—is fundamentally flawed. While Mr. Sharpe is definitely a jerk, he's not wrong when he tells everyone to stop using Gitney's numbering system because it "'contributes to hierarchy and rank'" (2.3.14). Mr. Gitney's naming system is entirely hierarchical: the King and his royal family are 01s; donors to the College are 02s; Mr. Gitney is 03-01, as the head of the third most important family at the College (1.1.12). Yup—hierarchy through and through.
In a society that's so built on divisions in class and status, naming in general signals that character's place in society. In the case of Cassiopeia and Octavian, their names not only show their "special" status in the household; their names also reference Mr. Gitney's classical education and, therefore, wealthy background. And because of this, their names also make it clear that it's he who's named them—which has only happened because he owns them.
Naming is an act of power, which is why self-naming can be a way to take power back. Bono's shortening of the name his original slave-master gave him—"Pro Bono"—shows how he refuses to allow white folks to fully define him. He also vows to Octavian that, when they next meet, Bono will have a totally different name (2.19.9).
As for Octavian—let's just say he can be pretty radical himself. Even though he writes his name as "Octavian Gitney" on his manuscripts, the book is titled "Octavian Nothing." Somewhere along the way in the series, Octavian drops his slave-master's last name and takes a name that says everything about his lost history, culture, and family. He's like the fictional 18th-century version of Malcolm X.