45 pages • 1 hour read
The Bitter Side of Sweet
A 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
Overview
Sullivan uses counting as a motif to show how the “things that matter” (1) to Amadou change along with his circumstances. In Chapter 1, Amadou counts each harvested cacao pod. This number matters because it determines whether he and Seydou will be beaten at the end of the day. Meeting quota each day is Amadou’s singular focus. Sullivan also highlights the things Amadou does not count, such as the number of beatings he has received or how many days have gone by since he lost hope of going home. Sullivan uses Amadou’s practice of counting to show the reader what life on the cacao farm is like. The only things that matter to him are keeping himself and Seydou alive and avoiding a beating from the bosses. This leaves little room for his emotional needs, such as friendship with the other boys or hope for the future.
As the events of the story unfold and Amadou escapes the farm, he counts different things. Some numbers are important for survival, such as the number of seconds it takes for the cacao trucks to move from one place to another, so he can time his jump into the back of the truck correctly. However, he also realizes that some of the most important things cannot be counted, such as keeping Seydou safe, comforting him while he’s in anguish over his amputated arm, and returning to the farm to rescue Khadija. Amadou finds kinship with Yussuf when he learns that Yussuf has also been counting the things that matter, by counting the boys in the sleeping hut each night.
By the end of the novel, the things that matter in Amadou’s life have completely changed. He no longer needs to count the cacao pods he harvests because he does not live in fear of a beating. Instead, he counts the number of days and weeks that have passed since starting paid work on a respectable cacao farm. Sullivan shows how Amadou’s situation and mindset have completely changed. Now that his life is more than just survival, he can count the things that truly matter, such as Seydou’s healing process, education, and plans to visit his home village. The use of the counting motif shows how Amadou’s life and mindset changes through his escape from enslavement, contrasting his previous fear with the fulfillment he now experiences.
Eyes
Sullivan repeatedly uses descriptions of characters’ eyes as a characterization tool. She gives details about a character’s personality and changing emotions based on the look in his or her eyes. For example, when Khadija first arrives at the farm, her eyes betray her fierce and spirited nature, earning her the nickname “wildcat” (39). However, after the bosses beat and rape her, her spirit is broken. This brokenness is reflected in her dead eyes. However, as she begins to heal, the same fiery spirit returns to her eyes, showing the reader that although she is broken she has not lost all hope.
Another example is Sullivan’s descriptions of Seydou’s eyes throughout the novel. Even though he’s only eight years old, Amadou notes that his eyes look like those of an old man, rather than the carefree, bouncing “cricket” he used to be. The change in Seydou’s eyes deepens after his injury and subsequent amputation. Amadou thinks, “The bouncing cricket that was my brother is gone” (199). However, as Seydou begins to heal and is given independence and encouragement from Amadou, his eyes begin to change. After Amadou praises him for haggling successfully in the market, Seydou’s eyes reveal the brother Amadou used to know. At the end of the novel, a little of the old man still remains in his eyes, but the cricket resides there, too. This shows the changes that have taken place within Seydou. Although he was forced to grow up too quickly at the farm, some of his carefree and happy nature returns as his physical and emotional wounds heal. These and other descriptions of characters’ eyes show the internal damage caused by imprisonment on the cacao farm and mark the internal changes that occur in characters over the course of the novel.
Talking Softly
Sullivan repeatedly describes how characters use quiet voices to accomplish different results. Often, a quiet voice is used to deliver threats and instill fear. For example, Moussa uses a quiet tone when he threatens to kill Seydou if Amadou fails to keep Khadija from running away. His quiet voice has a more frightening impact than shouting, and Moussa uses this as a strategy to keep the children on the farm afraid and subdued. Amadou learns this strategy from the bosses’ example and likewise uses a quiet voice to assert control and deliver threats. For instance, he pins one of the boys against a tree and softly threatens him for making fun of him and Khadija. The boy is terrified, and Amadou recognizes that he is becoming like the bosses, using violence and quiet threats to assert power over others.
Later, Khadija describes the quiet breathing of the man on the phone who called her house before she was kidnapped. Amadou thinks about the bosses’ use of quiet voices to instill fear and how he learned to speak softly also to “get people to do things if I needed them to” (188). Now that he is no longer at the farm, Amadou realizes how frightening he must have sounded to the other boys at times and regrets having anything in common with Khadija’s kidnappers and the bosses.
In addition to showing that a quiet voice can be menacing, Sullivan also shows how talking softly can show kindness and gentleness. For example, Yussuf speaks quietly to Amadou after Seydou is wounded as a gesture of friendship. Additionally, Amadou talks softly to Khadija when he’s cleaning her face the morning after her rape and beating.
Finally, at the novel’s end, Sullivan’s description of a quiet voice becomes symbolic. As the children and Mrs. Kablan run away from the kidnappers, the children realize that their voices have been quiet long enough. They can no longer be silenced; they must tell their story to give a voice to all of the children working as slaves on cacao plantations. Even though they are still in danger, they cannot wait until they are safe to loudly speak the truth. Sullivan’s motif of a quiet voice shows that speaking softly can be used for both good and evil. It also shows how Amadou, while living in fear, used quiet menace to frighten others. In contrast, when he ceases living in fear, he uses a strong voice to speak up for others.
Unlock all 45 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: