Copper Sun

The title of the book comes from the motif of the copper sun on which Amari focuses her attention several times in the novel. Depending on the current state of mood she is in, the sun is either a welcoming, familiar comfort that gives her strength, or it is a distant, ominous, and harmful power. When Amari is in physically demanding conditions, the sun adds to her distress, like when she is on the ship of death or introduced to life in the rice fields at the plantation. However, the sun is also aligned with her sense of home. She happily describes it while she is in her African village, and when they finally reach freedom in Fort Mose, the overwhelming sense of “home” is described alongside the description of the sun. This may be Draper’s acknowledgement of the universal human experience, that we all see things from a different perspective depending on our circumstances. The copper sun is described as a “copper pot” both in Africa and in America, and, although, for Amari this shared metaphor seems impossible, it is a comment on the small size of the world.