The horrific ship
The unnamed narrator of The Coming is subjected to an imagery that he describes as being perplexing and unfathomable, and at the same time horrific and sublime. Without explanation, he is violently removed from his community and sold to unfamiliar-looking people. He is enslaved and thrown into a dungeon on a ship that takes months to cross the Atlantic to America. In the meantime, he endures the decay of that packed dungeon as the small room fills with feces, urine, blood, and eventually the rotting flesh of starved and dead human beings.
Cages and chains
Upon his arrival, the narrator is relocated from one dungeon to another, still in chains. He realizes that chains are probably going to be major part of his life. The cages and posts to which the slaves are chained like dogs are constant reminders of their lack of freedom and the absolute unpleasantness to which they are going to be subjected as slaves. They are reminded with harsh and inhumane physical treatment that their escape is not going to happen. This lesson is reinforced with terroristic violence.
Slavery and auction
The imagery that best describes the institution of slavery is the imagery of the auction. At auction, smart slaves work to get away from the ruthless slave-traders. They compete for friendly looking owners. It is in this imagery that Atiba emerges into the novel's story. Atiba is a natural-born performer, and he goes along with exactly the wrong notions that shape the notions of the wealthy white folks who are buying them. In the end, he is sold into slavery to a weak couple with stupid ideas, and he murders them. The auction imagery leads to death, we see.
Life and death
By introducing capital violence into the story, Atiba's character raises important ethical considerations about life and death. To enslave someone is depicted in this novel as being so ruthlessly inhumane and violent, not to mention hateful and evil, that Atiba feels he has the sovereign right to remind his captors about his human power and nature. By skillfully navigating the situation, he manages to find some compensation for his capture—the deaths of his first owners. The novel raises that to the reader for contemplation and judgment. Is the murder justified because of the intolerable nature of slavery, or is Atiba still evil for having taken human life?
