White on Black Violence
In Homegoing, Gyasi shows the brutal way African and African-American people have been treated by white Westerners throughout history; as Esi thinks, "white men smiling just meant more evil was coming with the next wave" (p56). Gyasi shows this by not holding back in her depictions of violence, especially that done by white men to black characters. For example, when Ness is harshly whipped by her plantation master for something she didn't do, Gyasi describes: "She is beaten until the whip snaps off her back like pulled taffy, and then she is kicked to the ground...[an herbal doctor] comes back with the roots and leaves and salves that are smeared into Ness’s back as she slips in and out of consciousness... in the morning...she wakes to fresh pain and festered sores" (p89). The author does not play down or glorify any aspect of slavery, and is just as unsparing in her descriptions of prison labor and race-based discrimination by potential employers and romantic partners. This unflinching depiction of ancient and contemporary racial issues makes the story vivid and powerful.
The Cape Coast Castle Dungeons
Gyasi's depiction of the women's dungeon at Cape Coast Castle is repulsive, and purposefully so. Esi being taken to the dungeon is the first strongly negative event in the book, and the beginning of her descendants' struggles being owned by and immersed in white society. Furthermore, giving the reader vividly disgusting details about the smell and sight of human waste on the floor of the dungeon from the outset of Esi's chapter, makes a dramatic contrast between Esi's situation and her sister Effia's, though they are so close in relation and physically, in space. By writing that the women were stacked on top of one another, some of them unconscious and others having to pee or poop on those below them, Gyasi underscores the inhumane conditions in the dungeon. This imagery is especially powerful because she intersperses snapshots of Esi's life before being captured with the graphic dungeon scenes.
Sex
While Gyasi's depictions of sex are not overly graphic, she does not shy away from vivid description. These depictions of sex and intimacy are used to show moments of power and vulnerability between consensual romantic partners, and in the case of Esi, forced sexual intercourse is another aspect of the cruel treatment she receives. The first sex scene in the book is between Effia and James Collins; while they have been married and having sex regularly, the scene Gyasi chooses to describe is a time when Effia takes control of the relationship. She writes, "Not since their first night together had he been this timid, afraid of her unfamiliar body, the full-figured flesh, so different from how he had described his wife...She scratched his back, and he cried out. She bit his ear and pulled his hair...when she opened her eyes to look at him, she saw something like pain written across his face and the ugliness of the act, the sweat and blood and wetness they produced, became illuminated, and she knew that if she was an animal tonight, then he was too" (p28). In this sexual experience, Gyasi shows Effia, who is in all other arenas submissive to and even subjugated by her husband, as the dominant partner in the relationship. The fact that Effia scratches James, pulls his hair, and sees him as an animal in pain shows the way Effia is fierce in her determination to create offspring with this act, rather than trying to be intimate with her husband. Gyasi demonstrates similar power dynamics when she describes sex between Kojo and Anna, Akua and Asamoah, and Ness and Sam.
Bradford Pear Trees
Similar to Gyasi's unflinching description of the overwhelming smell of human waste in the Cape Coast Castle dungeon, the author details a strangely specific smell in Marjorie's chapter. The author writes, "That week the Bradford pear trees started to bloom. At school everyone said they smelled like semen, like sex, like a woman’s vagina. Marjorie hated the smell of them, a reflection of her virginity, her inability to liken the smell to anything other than rotting fish." (p290) This tangent draws attention to Marjorie's focus on romantic relationships, which makes Marjorie's rejection by Graham a few pages later even more impactful. The description also calls attention to the immaturity of the people Marjorie deals with at school, validating her somewhat self-imposed social isolation.
