Octavian Nothing Themes Essay

Themes in Octavian Nothing: themes of freedom and restraint, of liberty and slavery, science and myth, knowledge and ignorance. Individual choice

Freedom versus Slavery

No phrase better sums up the novel as a whole than Freedom versus Slavery. Octavian desires freedom even when he is not poorly treated. This desire to be free is man's natural state, so taken for granted amongst slave-owners in the colonies that they cannot understand why slaves would even desire it. This constant striving for freedom is the driving force in the novel, and the reason that Octavian comes into conflict with the likes of Gitney and Sharper over his own freedom is that they refuse to equate his desire to be free from slavery with their own desire to be free from Britain's rule. The other slaves in the novel that Octavian familiarizes himself with all desire freedom as well, one even dies in the fighting and is freed after death for his work.

First, Octavian is—though he is slow to realize it—a slave, as is his pampered mother. Therefore, even as the scientists of the college free his mind to think far beyond the horizons available to most people, especially most slaves, he also learns to understand more fully what it means to be a slave. Second, the theme of rationality and passion causes all characters in the novel to impose limits on themselves and to seek freedom in different ways. For example, when Mr. Gitney records how Princess Cassiopeia died of the pox, he does not record his own emotional outbreaks and how he loved her; in the rationality of science, there is freedom from the passion he could not allow himself to express. Third, each character’s search for freedom plays out against a national backdrop. As Octavian struggles with his slavery, the colonies take up arms against the British and fight for their own collective