Roots (美国小说--根)

Roots: The Saga of an American Family (First edition cover) Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It was adapted into a hugely popular, 12-hour television miniseries, also called Roots, in 1977, and a 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979. Plot introduction Brought up on the stories of his elderly female relatives -- including his Grandmother Cynthia, who was emancipated from slavery with her family in 1865 -- Alex Haley purported to have traced his family history back to “the African,” Kunta Kinte, captured by slave traders in 1767. For generations, each of Kunta’s enslaved descendants passed down an oral history of Kunta’s experiences as a free man in Gambia, along with the African words he taught them. Haley researched African village customs, slave-trading and the history of Blacks in America -- as well as made a personal visit to the griot (oral historian) of his ancestor’s African village -- to produce this colorful rendering of his family’s history from the mid-eighteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Plot summary The action begins with the birth of Kunta Kinte in 1750 to a Mandinka tribesman in the village of Juffure, The Gambia. The author liberally uses many African words to describe the everyday life of this Muslim community, which sees young boys like Kunta being groomed to manhood with lessons of hunting, protecting their families, and subscribing to codes of honor under the strict supervision of village elders. Several years later, Kunta hears vague talk about “toubob” (white people) who have been spotted in the jungles nearby. Tribesmen are disappearing from other villages, never to be seen again. At the age of 16, while Kunta is on sentry duty and looking for wood with which to fashion a drum, he is ambushed by four slave catchers. Although he fights back, he is no match for them, and is chained and hauled off to a ship for the beginning of a horrifying sea voyage. On the journey, he finds that the Mandinka warrior, Kintango, who trained him to manhood has also been captured. Kintango provides Kunta with much verbal support. Kintango later dies in the revolt. Chained to each other and to their beds in the dark, dank hold, the slaves lie in their own excrement and become violently ill. Once or twice a week, the whites bring them up to the deck in chains in order to clean the hold. On one such occasion, the slaves, who have managed to communicate with each other despite the many different languages they speak, conspire to overthrow the whites. The revolt is quashed by the white sailors, but an outbreak of vomiting, fever, and diarrhea wipes out one third of the Black captives and half of the whites. This attrition rate was typical for slave ships of the time. At a slave auction, Kunta is bought for $850 by John Waller of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Given the name “Toby” and assigned to work as a field laborer on Massa Waller’s plantation, Kunta attempts to escape four times over the next four years and is punished, each time more severely than the last. Unlike the American-born blacks on the plantation, who have not been taught to read or write and are treated more like children than adults, Kunta can read, write, and speak fluent Arabic, and is angered by his forced enslavement. On his fourth escape attempt, slave catchers chop off half of Kunta’s right foot so that he cannot escape anymore. Incensed by the attack, John Waller’s brother, Dr. William Waller, buys Kunta from his brother and allows him to be nursed back to health by his “big house” cook, Belle. A warmhearted, American-born slave, Belle patiently nurtures a relationship with the tall, brooding African at the same time. Kunta works for several years as Dr. Waller’s gardener and later his wagon-driver before he finally plucks up the courage to ask Belle to marry him. She does, and the two have a baby at a rather advanced age. Kunta insists that the child be named Kizzy, an African name, rather than Mary, the name Belle would have preferred. In Kizzy, Kunta invests all his efforts to remind his daughter that she is the scion of a proud, free people. He teaches her many African words and patiently repeats to her the story of his capture and sale, a story that she will pass down to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren in turn. At the age of six, Kizzy becomes good friends with Dr. Waller’s niece, Missy -- to her parents’ dismay. As time goes on, Kizzy grows less close to her parents and more attached to Missy, who treats her as her personal plaything. Through Missy, Kizzy also learns how to read. This proves to be her undoing, for ten years later, Kizzy falls in love with a male slave from the plantation. When she confides to him that she knows how to read and write, he implores her to forge papers for him so he can escape, and she does. The following day, soldiers who have caught, tortured and killed the runaway slave come to Dr. Waller’s plantation and wrench Kizzy away from her parents. She is dragged away to a slave auction, never to see her parents again. Kizzy is auctioned off to a disreputable slave owner in North Carolina named Tom Lea. On Kizzy’s first night at his plantation, her drunken master makes crude sexual advances to her. When she refuses to have sex with him, he brutally rapes her in the barn and then drops a quarter in a jar next to her bed as thanks for her services. He continues to abuse her several times a week, leaving her a coin each time, until she is five months pregnant. She gives birth to a son whom her master insists on giving a European name, not an African one. The baby is named George. When George is born, Kizzy, who is only 17, is horrified to see that his skin is light-colored, not ebony black like her own. Her shame is intense. The other slaves at the Lea plantation advise her to forget about the father, although Massa Lea continues to visit her frequently at night. The continual abuse drives Kizzy to depression. But when Massa Lea finally leaves her alone two years later, Kizzy bonds to the other slaves and tends to her son as lovingly as she would a child born to her out of love rather than rape.