River Sing Me Home

The blanket that the man who is begging gives Rachel while in Bridgetown is a symbol of the fear of discovery. The blanket plays an important role in Part 1 because it allows Rachel to pass in and out of spaces. For example, when Rachel covers her head with the blanket, she “shields herself from the world” (65), namely the part of the world where the specter of plantation life reaches. The fear of discovery works in tandem with the fear of whiteness as illustrated by Rachel’s reactions to seeing white people in Bridgetown (65).

As an act of self-preservation, covering herself with the blanket allows Rachel to move anonymously. However, in keeping the blanket, Rachel realizes that she is never truly safe from discovery, even if she is not around white people: “The foreman might well have gone back north, but Rachel was starting to realize that Bridgetown—that all of Barbados—might never be safe” (85). The blanket can only shield her from the gaze of physical recognition and not the psychological ramifications of slavery itself. In this realization that she could never be safe having liberated herself, Eleanor Shearer highlights the superficiality of the blanket’s comfort.