The Longest Memory shows how the injustice of slavery can trap both the slaves and their owners in a web of cruelty, destruction of relationships and death. This is indicated by the various different characters in the story and their diverse points of view, namely, the black slaves, Whitechapel, Cook and Chapel to their white captors Mr. Whitechapel, Sanders Senior and Junior, and Lydia. Throughout the novel, there is a continuous theme that the black …showed first 75 words of 628 total…

…showed last 75 words of 628 total…is not there, and people might think he is a loser and cannot face reality. The Longest Memory explores how both captors and captives can be shackled by the running of a system like slavery. As the novel concludes, with the idea that slavery enslaves everybody that is involved with it, because both master and slave become dehumanised by it. Therefore, this inhuman system, should be forgotten, as "memory is pain trying to resurrect itself."