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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Race and Racism

Each character in Homegoing suffers from racist beliefs or institutions at some point in their lives, as these strongholds are used to perpetuate colonization and slavery. This motif reveals how even those such as Effia’s family, who are considered privileged, are not safe from the societal scourge of racism. Esi’s descendants suffer more brutally from racism, as they are subjected to slavery. However, Effia’s descendants also experience racism even if a bit more subtly at the hands of the British colonizers. This is shown by James Collins’s ridiculing Effia’s fertility ritual as “voodoo” and “black magic,” asserting his own culture’s superiority. The fact that even the relatively privileged are made to feel inferior due to their race shows how the British and Americans, hungry for money and power, use race to keep themselves in charge.

Family

Family is of the utmost importance to each character in Homegoing. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, though they all have at least one family member in common: Maame. No matter who they are or where they go, this common lineage ties them together. Throughout the novel, family is what motivates each character to keep going. Even when parents are forced to separate from their children, they often do so in the hopes of giving their child a better life, as in the case of Ness and Kojo. Success and happiness are often rooted in a stable family, as shown by Kojo’s family before his wife is abducted. Reconnecting with family is often what allows each character to feel fulfilled, as is the case with H, Sonny, and Yaw. As many of the characters find, home may not necessarily be a place they can always return to but the place where their family is.

Names

The novel uses names to show characters’ connection to their own heritage and identity. Several of the characters on Esi’s side choose their own nicknames, perhaps trying to assert their identity with no knowledge of their heritage. Esi gave her son, Kojo, an African name, trying to keep him connected to her culture. However, as an adult, Kojo goes by “Jo,” seemingly to assimilate more into American culture. Despite the name given to him by his mother, Willie’s son chooses to go by “Sonny,” perhaps as a reminder of both fathers who abandoned him who called him by that name. And “H” keeps the letter his mother gave him at birth instead of a name, as it is the only thing he has of his mother. In a world where heritage and identity are being ripped from people based on their race, often a name is all they have to either remember their parents or assert who they are.

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