The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation (Volume 1): Part IV

by M.T. Anderson
Octavian Nothing is an African youth held captive by a group of Enlightenment scientists and philosophers in eighteenth-century Boston. This National Book Award-winning novel explores racism, freedom, and individual identity.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV

Here are links to our lists for other works by M.T. Anderson: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation (Volume 2), Feed.
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words only definitions & notes
  1. manacle
    shackle that can be locked around the wrist
    In my Observant state, I had even fancied that the sensation of shame inhered in the manacles, I could feel it so acutely in them; I had believed the manacles an extension of my wrists, and shame a quality radiating from them like the heat from the walls.
  2. ambit
    an area in which something operates or has power or control
    We believe that the body hath its rights — to move in a reasonable ambit — to raise, to lower its limbs — but across the face of this earth, there are every day those who suffer unforgivable torments, strapped or chained, confined in boxes or in the holds of ships.
  3. capitulation
    the act of surrendering, usually under agreed conditions
    I thought on their hypocrisy, too easy a mark, even, for argument, so howling it was — that I had been apprehended as slave through the capitulation of those who fought for liberty.
  4. nonentity
    the state of not existing
    Consider, then, the full measure of my sadness, reading this inscription; not merely for Hosiah Lister, but for all of us; consider the dear cost of liberty in a world so hostile, so teeming with enemies and opportunists, that one could not become free without casting aside all causality, all choice, all will, all identity; finding freedom only in the spacious blankness of unbeing, the wide plains of nonentity, infinite and still.
  5. remonstrate
    present and urge reasons in opposition
    That most brilliant of parents remonstrated, urging his son not to attempt the crossing...because the boy was not yet ready to struggle alone with such vast forces.
  6. conflagration
    a very intense and uncontrolled fire
    It is recounted by Ovid that in this conflagration, the peoples of Africa were all seared...their skin scorched..
  7. manumit
    free from slavery or servitude
    To manumit you, I would have to pay a bond...grievously expensive...
  8. abject
    most unfortunate or miserable
    Did we all free our slaves, America would be thrown into the most abject monetary crisis, commerce would become impossible...
  9. diaspora
    the dispersion of something that was originally localized
    “Then,” said Mr. Sharpe, turning from me, “you are a member of an even more bedraggled and inconsequential diaspora than I had imagined.”
    The bedraggled ("limp and soiled as if dragged in the mud") and inconsequential ("lacking worth or importance") diaspora that Mr. Sharpe had originally imagined consisted of Africans enslaved around the world, but here, he is mocking Octavian for insisting that he belongs "to the nation of whosoever--without profit--pursues the good and the right."
  10. extricate
    release from entanglement or difficulty
    We are all part of a web of finance and exchange from which we cannot extricate ourselves.
  11. vie
    compete for something
    ...and all things, Octavian, devour, and all things are for sale; and all things have their price; and all things vie and kill; and that is all we do; and all things must support themselves, or be consumed.
  12. untrammeled
    not confined or limited
    I gasped for air, finally untrammeled (as Mr. Sharpe would have it) by the strictures of tyranny.
  13. subterfuge
    something intended to misrepresent the nature of an activity
    Watching him, I realized that the subterfuge should be greater still, did I not exhibit the freedom of my hands to the household as we departed, and I lowered my arms.
  14. reprehensible
    bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure
    He went to Mr. Sharpe and worked at tying the wet handkerchief around that reprehensible man’s head as a gag.
  15. execrable
    unequivocally detestable
    Though I was jolted by the ruts of the road, I was infinitely gratified to see that house — that execrable house — dwindle behind me.
Created on Wed Oct 23 12:53:55 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Aug 05 12:44:18 EDT 2025)

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