MIDDLE PASSAGE

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson

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1 November , 2006

Throughout the novel Middle Passage , written by Charles Johnson violation of human rights , particularly bondage , is a reoccurring theme The characters in the novel are bonded physically , emotionally , or psychologically . Some characters whose right are violated cannot escape their bondage . Others choose to place themselves in the situations Throughout the course of the novel , some of the characters gain their freedom and move forward with their lives . Other characters are never able to gain

their freedom because their lives end in death

Within the first page of the book we are introduced to Rutherford Calhoun , an ex-slave . He has been recently freed and has chosen to settle down in New Orleans . According to Rutherford , New Orleans wasn 't just home . It was heaven (2 . Rutherford is in search of living the life of what he envisions as a free man : happy and self-directed However , Rutherford finds himself bonded to new things . As scholar Barbara Z . Thaden asserts , Rutherford discovers that his freedom is only a different type of slavery (254 . Thaden also notes , Rutherford leads a life of petty crime , drinking , womanizing , and running from commitment of any kind (254 . He becomes bonded to gambling stealing , and debt . As scholar Ashraf H .A . Rushdy argues , gaining his freedom has only trapped him further into the futile struggle to preserve and promote his individuality (375

In New Orleans , Rutherford becomes a petty thief . He says that he looked for honest work ' but found nothing ' so he stole (3 Rutherford also says that stealing was a way to shake off stress and occupy his hands (103 . As scholar Ashraf H .A . Rushdy notes stealing , for Rutherford , is more than an occupation : it is a philosophy (376 . As a child , Reverend Peleg Chandler [noticed] the stickiness of his fingers (3 . In to gain access aboard the Republic , Rutherford steals Josiah Squibb 's and continues his habit of stealing throughout the voyage

Rutherford also becomes bonded to gambling and as a result , ends up in debt . Rutherford would play card games that lasted three days and nights (7 . Because he lost most of the card games he played and used what money he had to play card games , he owed several people within a mile circumference of the city- [his] landlady Mrs . Dupree Mr . Fenton the moneylender and the vendors too (12

Rutherford faces the enslavement of marriage before and after getting onboard the Republic . He is on the ship because he doesn 't want to marry Isadora . By marrying Isadora , he could have freed himself from the bondage of debt . However , once he boards the ship and becomes a crew member , he is faced with the enslavement of marriage once more . Falcon considers Rutherford his spy and gives him a special gun . This gun requires him to wear a ring to prevent anyone else from using it . They both have the same rings on their left hand...