Character Analysis Of Polly In Sharon Draper's Copper Sun

In the novel Copper Sun by Sharon Draper, Polly is an indentured servant who wants to escape her class and Amari is a slave who has had her family ripped away from her. Polly grows from a narrow-minded young woman who looks down on slaves into a more tolerant young woman, likewise, Amari grows from a naïve young woman who does not trust her instincts into one who is wise beyond her years.
Throughout the novel, Polly grows from a narrow-minded young woman who is disdainful of slaves because of how she was raised, because they prevent her from getting a job, and because they seem less intelligent than she into a more tolerant young woman who understands that slaves are the same as she is on the inside. Polly was raised to see herself as being above slaves and closer to her rich employers than the other indentured servants and slaves that she lived with: as her father told her, “the company you keep will rub off on you, Polly girl. Don’t get your hands dirty by dealin’ with darkies” (78). Hence, Polly sees the slaves as below her and is appalled when she is expected to live with them (91). Through her actions, Polly demonstrates that she is jealous of the slaves because of their ability to find work and does not realize that the slaves do not choose to work, but are forced to work. Polly wonders, “who could compete with someone who worked for free” (75) and thinks that the slaves “ought to be grateful” because they were saved from savagery in the jungle (76). This leads Polly to see herself as more intelligent than the slaves, though in the later half of the

Polly grows from a prejudiced young girl into a more tolerant young woman, and Amari grows from a naïve young woman into a young woman who is wise beyond her years. The two young women grow through their suffering and life experiences and are able to become better, stronger