Ownership

Because this novel deals with the issue of slavery, one of the natural themes is the idea of ownership. Southern whites viewed their slaves as property, and legally, slaves were designated as such. Because the whites believed they owned their slaves, in the same way they owned their farm animals or pets, they believed they could treat their slaves any way they wanted. Slaves were not thought of as emotional human beings, but as beasts of burden unable to form bonds and attachments, and certainly unable to formulate intellectual thought. For male slave owners, this often meant that women were treated as nothing more than sex objects, and their slaves were continually raped simply because they were not allowed a voice of their own to say "no." The slaves themselves suffered terribly for their lack of position on the plantation. Obviously, the slaves were not paid for their...