At the end of the day, James is not a “bad” individual, rather his actions and desires are “bad” and unacceptable because they go against the expectation his parents have for him to eventually take over Quay’s responsibilities as a slaver. Altogether, this rebellious behavior enacted by James in his chapter shows how his middle name has connotation and embodies who he is as a person. Nevertheless, James was intent on getting away from his family because he wanted to move to “Asanteland… marry Akosua… and work as a farmer or something small” (Gyasi 104). Because of who she was, James “knew his parents would never approve of Akosua, not even as a third or fourth wife, she was nothing, and she came from nowhere” (Gyasi 99). James’ aspiration to be his own “nation” (Gyasi 107) shows through in his ambition to marry Akosua Mensah, an Asante. Considering his overall unacceptable behavior in the James chapter, the middle name Richard embodies James’ persona pretty well because he repugnantly wanted to be the opposite of what his father is and grandfather was. Whether intentional or not, Yaa Gyasi seems to use names as a way of labeling characters with personality identification. Altogether, the meaning behind the name Richard in this novel so far seems to entail “bad” and/or unacceptability. In good fun, Cudjo frivolously named his snail Richard simply because “it’s a British name and he was bad like the British are bad” (Gyasi 57). At the conclusion of the race, Quay’s snail won easily while Cudjo’s snail lost terribly.
In the Quay chapter, the name Richard comes up when young Quay and his friend Cudjo decide to race some snails for fun. However, the mention of James’ middle name, “Richard”, does have profound significance in regard to who he becomes later in his chapter. Other than depicting Nana Yaa’s anger and anguish, the simple dialogue structure and overall word choice used above does not really entail much connotation. In all, Nana Yaa hated the notion of having a son with an all-White name almost as much as she hated the forced marriage she had with Quay. The furious tone present in Nana Yaa’s voice above resulted from an argument brought up between her and her husband Quay. “James Richard Collins! What kind of Akan are you that you give your son three white names?” (Gyasi 90)
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