The Longest Memory

Whitechapel is the focal character of D’Aguiar’s novel, The Longest Memory however, the author has used a great many other characters whose stories also stand-alone. Why has D’Aguiar structured his novel in this way and how does it lead the reader to an understanding of the impacts of slavery? D’Aguiar’s central purpose is to make us reflect upon American society during the slavery era and to acknowledge its realities so …

…which in the democracies of today is unthinkable, because of the length of time for him to finally see what the truth was. D’Aguiar has used the technique of “Repetition of an event” to force the reader to see the different points of view that they have on the particular event, in this case the death of Chapel which every character bar Cook Chapel’s mum reflects upon. This particular technique has utilised the