54 pages • 1 hour read
Pauline Elizabeth HopkinsOf One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1902A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
Now clad in royal attire, Reuel tours Telassar with Ai. He marvels at the magnificent city, its architecture, statues, and fertile land. Everything feels familiar to him as “[s]hadowy images of past scenes and happenings flitted across his brain” (110). Reuel asks Ai if they maintain communication with the outside world, and Ai responds that Ababdis, camel-driver on Reuel’s expedition, is a member of the council and informed them about the caravan’s arrival. They reach a square where a crowd is gathered and Ai places a crown on Reuel’s head. Reuel is confused about this honor, yet he is soon raised on a platform and hailed as King Ergamenes. Alone again with Ai and Ababdis, Reuel wonders about the event. Ai tells Reuel that he is Ergamenes, the long expected king of Ethiopia for whom the city was built. Reuel’s birthmark proves his royal Ethiopian ancestry.
Reuel ponders his destiny. He has been hiding his racial identity for a long time but recalls a family tradition about their descent from African kings. He recalls his mother’s occult powers, passed on to him, and the importance she placed on his birthmark. He realizes that his mysticism is “the shadow of Ethiopia’s power” (117).
Chapter 16 Summary
Ai asks Reuel about America and if Ethiopians there are oppressed. He wonders why Reuel has distanced himself from other Black people, and Reuel replies they are considered inferior to white people. He begins to feel guilty for hiding his identity. As Ai is curious, Reuel explains to him in detail the history of Black people in America. Ai, in turn, describes the society and culture of Telassar. The people have a female monarch named Candace and a council of 25 Sages who periodically visit the outside world. The virgin queen expects the new Ergamenes to found a generation of kings. They believe in One Supreme being and that all people have a divine trait called “soul Ego.” The ego must be raised to the “highest condition of human existence” (123). Reuel states that he believes in Jesus Christ. Ai says the people would follow Reuel’s religion, and he begins to realize his responsibilities.
People continue paying homage to Reuel as Ergamenes. Along with Ai and some of the Sages, they travel to the inner city. On the road, they encounter a lion, which Reuel keeps calm with animal magnetism, convincing the men that he is the powerful king. Female guardians await them in the inner city. After a ceremony, Reuel meets the Queen. Reuel is instantly captivated by her beauty. She asks him if he is the king returning to his inheritance, and her voice reminds him of Dianthe. Her appearance and build also resemble Dianthe. He expresses his loving feelings and is ready to embrace his destiny. She vows her submission to him. Reuel thinks of his former life and now considers Dianthe his “spirit-bride.” In the Queen’s presence, his hesitations and doubts over his situation disappear. Their union is quickly arranged.
Chapter 17 Summary
Preparations start for Reuel’s marriage to the Queen. However, Reuel’s inner turmoil returns, as he hears Dianthe’s voice calling him. He talks to Ai, who asks Reuel if he believes in the “Soul” or “Personality” that lives after death. Reuel answers yes. Ai tells Reuel that he knew about his coming since he left New York. Ai leads him in his secret room and shows him a carved table with a disk on it that reflects the past and the dead, and a vessel of water that shows the living and the future. In the disk, Reuel sees Aubrey, Dianthe, and Molly on the boat. Ai tells him to think of something and he can see it on the table. Reuel sees scenes of his childhood, but when he thinks of Dianthe he sees nothing. Instead, he sees Dianthe’s reflection in the waters. He also sees Aubrey and Jim Titus as his enemies, confirming that they are indeed in league against him. He asks Ai to show him the present. Ai employs a liquid, and Reuel sees Aubrey embracing Dianthe in his family home.
Reuel is furious and agonizes over Dianthe. At night, he hears her voice as in a vision. She says that she is alive but lost. She did not want to betray him but Aubrey exerted power over her that she thought only Reuel could. She says he should not have left her to this evil man. Reuel is full of rage. He wants to return to America to confront Aubrey but feels he is a prisoner in Telassar. Finally, he hears a scream.
Chapter 18 Summary
Two months have passed since Reuel’s disappearance, and Charlie, who has changed into a “serious-minded man” (141), is devastated. He resolves to remain in Meroe until he finds his friend. Charlie finds the passage that he believes Reuel followed and along with Jim Titus, he enters the Great Pyramid to look for him. Charlie has decided that Jim is ultimately a good man. For two days they excavate until they find a passage. They are immediately captured and carried further underground. Hours pass until they are led before Ai. Ai asks Charlie why he wants to find treasures and mysteries for centuries hidden. Charlie replies that his race often seeks adventure, knowledge, and money. He feels his purpose is confronting the “race-question.” Ai asks how they treat somebody like Jim in America. Charlie feels embarrassed saying that they are usually servants. Ai responds that they are all “of one blood” and warns Charlie that Ethiopia will rise again (145). Charlie asks why they are held as prisoners, and Ai says he will know soon.
Charlie and Jim manage to escape the room where they are being held. They descend into the hole they have made and soon find a box full of gemstones. Charlie realizes they cannot carry it with them. Alone with Jim in the face of danger, he forgets their racial difference and recalls Ai’s words that all races have the same blood. Jim stumbles upon a ring, believing it would open another box. He pulls and a black pit opens. Charlie yells that there are serpents inside and tells Jim to run. Horrified, Charlie sinks into the ground.
Chapter 19 Summary
Reuel awakens to the sound of a horrible scream. The shadow of Mira appears and shows him the way to an unknown part of the palace. She indicates an entrance and disappears. Reuel enters and finds Ai. Ai is surprised, but Reuel walks into the room and sees Charlie and Jim lying unconscious. Ai says that Jim is dying. Jim calls Reuel and confesses everything: Aubrey ordered Jim to murder Reuel, and Jim could not refuse because Aubrey is his foster brother. Aubrey wanted to prevent Reuel and Dianthe’s union and let Molly die so he would not have to marry her. Jim also reveals that Dianthe is Reuel’s sister and Aubrey his half-brother. Reuel is enraged, and Jim soon dies. Reuel wonders about the past and the future. His wrath makes him “curse the bond that bound him to the white race of his native land” (153).
A month later, Reuel and Charlie start for America with Ai and Abdallah disguised as servants. The council permits the journey on the condition that Reuel return. Reuel and Charlie’s goal is to punish Aubrey, but their feelings differ. While Charlie views Aubrey as a murderer, Reuel thinks of “the accumulation of years of foulest wrongs heaped upon the innocent and defenceless women of a race” (154).
Chapters 15-19 Analysis
Ai functions as a guide for Reuel who leads him to the discovery of his identity. Telassar provides Reuel with a sense of belonging and the sense of a shared historical memory of something other than dispossession. The theme of Decolonizing African American Identity recurs as Reuel is ultimately recognized as the expected king Ergamenes, who will reinstate the power of the Ethiopian race. Reuel learns about the city’s history and his own cultural heritage through Ai, who explains the race’s glorious past. Ai declares that Reuel will “begin the restoration of Ethiopia” (114). Reuel’s lotus-lily birthmark proves he is a descendant of the royal line of Ethiopia. The music motif is also evident as Ai’s story involves sung speech. Music again connects to the inner self as the songs that tell of Ethiopia’s past awaken Reuel’s memories. He recalls his mother’s stories about their descent “from a race of African kings” (117). He realizes that the spiritual power he inherited from her connects with their African cultural heritage and identity. In America, Reuel hid his African heritage, but in Telassar, his consciousness awakens and begins to embrace his identity.
Ai’s questions to Reuel about Black people’s treatment in America connect to the theme of Addressing the Traumatic Historical Past. Reuel describes the dehumanization of Black people and their social and political subordination due to racial discrimination. Reuel becomes responsible for uplifting the people of Telassar. When Reuel meets the female monarch, Queen Candace, he discerns her resemblance to Dianthe. The Queen’s appearance foreshadows the revelation of Dianthe’s ancestry, revealed later in the novel, and connects to the theme of Black Women’s Quest for Liberation. At this point, the Queen becomes a reflection of Dianthe, one of her future possibilities if she had managed to reconnect with her ancestors like Reuel: “She reminded him strongly of his beautiful Dianthe; in fact, the resemblance was so striking that it was painful” (128). Reuel develops similar loving feelings towards the Queen that revive him, and Dianthe becomes to him a spirit: “Only once had he known joy in his checkered life, and that was when he basked in the society of Dianthe, whom he now designated his spirit-bride” (129). Reuel’s union with Queen Candace in Africa signifies to him the happiness he could not attain in America.
However, Dianthe still haunts Reuel, and his rational mind emerges to question the reality of Telassar. Mysticism and the supernatural emerge again to enlighten Reuel. Ai’s mystical powers, which indicate their common cultural heritage, help Reuel see what Dianthe experiences in America. Through Ai’s disk and water vessel, he learns that Aubrey has confined Dianthe in his family home, a former plantation in Maryland. Dianthe returns as a vision again to reveal that she is alive and to ask Reuel why he left her behind. As Reuel reaches a state of rage, Charlie and Jim Titus arrive in Telassar. A dramatic turn of events leads to Jim’s confession of Aubrey’s plot against Reuel. Jim reveals the dark family secrets that indicate how race and blood define the characters’ lives. The theme of Addressing the Traumatic Historical Past reemerges as the text reveals that Reuel, Dianthe, and Aubrey are siblings with one common father: the elder Livingston, Aubrey’s father, who enslaved Mira, Reuel and Dianthe’s father. The history of enslavement connects the main characters. Their relationship indicates a long history of abuse and sexual exploitation against Black women in the antebellum era, an issue that Hopkins shows had not yet been fully addressed in her time. Reuel’s departure for America with Ai and Charlie is an attempt to seek justice as the author explores the Black Women’s Quest for Liberation. Reuel ultimately realizes the injustice Black women in America endure. His rage against Aubrey is mainly motivated by “the accumulation of years of foulest wrongs heaped upon the innocent and defenceless women of a race” (154). After his time in Africa reinforces his identity, Reuel wants to set matters right in America and punish Aubrey.
