27 pages • 54 minutes read
Mark TwainA True Story
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1874A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Physical Stance and Proximity
Content Warning: This section references racism and enslavement.
Aunt Rachel’s physical position relative to other characters is referred to multiple times, signifying her status as human and others’ recognition of that humanity. In the beginning, Aunt Rachel sits “respectfully” below Misto C and his family. As their servant, even after the end of slavery, she is still treated as inferior to white Americans. As the story progresses, she draws physically closer to Misto C in a process that mirrors the empathy her narrative presumably sparks in him. In his final interjection, Misto C describes her as towering above him, suggesting his newfound recognition of her strength and worth. Within her own narrative, Aunt Rachel similarly describes how her mother and she straighten themselves up before asserting their self-respect. Finally, Aunt Rachel uses her physical proximity to Misto C to help tell the tale of making biscuits and reuniting with her son. She pushes his feet and stares him in his eyes, demonstrating that she and Misto C are on the same level despite societal preconceptions. What’s more, her actions make him a participant in the story and even a proxy for her own son, all of which punctuate the request for empathy. Aunt Rachel’s body language is therefore one of the ways in which the story communicates The Possibility of Human Connection.
Kitchen
The kitchen is both a setting and a motif. It appears twice: once when Aunt Rachel’s mother bandages Henry, and later as the place where Aunt Rachel works and is reunited with Henry. The kitchen, a symbol of both women’s domestic role and the labor of enslaved women specifically, becomes something more when it is inhabited by Aunt Rachel and her mother. Both stand up against rowdy men there, asserting their authority in a way that develops the theme of Black Women Defying Racism and Sexism. The kitchen also acts as a place of hope when Aunt Rachel finally reunites with Henry as she is taking the biscuits out of the stove. The room where she has done so much forced labor becomes a space of family and love just as the story as a whole moves through grief to joy.
Chains
A well-known symbol of oppression, chains in this story symbolize the strength of Aunt Rachel and her defiance of racism. When Aunt Rachel and her family are sold at the auction, she is placed in chains—a physically restrictive device but a forceful symbol of enslavement as well. However, when Aunt Rachel fights to keep her son Henry with her, she beats the auctioneers “over de head wid [her] chain” (592). This use of the symbol of her oppression to fight back mirrors the broader ways in which Aunt Rachel turns notions of what it means to be enslaved and a woman on their head.
Though chains don’t cause Henry’s injuries, it’s significant that Henry bears scars on his wrists—i.e., where shackles would normally be placed. These scars, sustained as an enslaved child, persist into Henry’s adulthood. They are at once a reminder of the traumatic past and the marker that helps identify Henry to his mother 13 years later, demonstrating The Complexity of Joy in an Unjust World.
Related Titles
By Mark Twain
