Middle Passage

“Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I’ve come to learn, is women.” 

Rutherford’s perspective on how he ended up aboard the Republic indicates how passive he is at the start of the novel. The idea that women are the cause of such disasters is a (historically accurate) example of the sexism of the age. 

“New Orleans wasn’t home. It was heaven.” 

New Orleans, an Atlantic seaport built by multiple colonial powers and home to many people of African descent, is initially a symbol of freedom for Rutherford because it feeds his hunger for experiences and sensuality. The city becomes a trap for him when he is forced to flee his debts and Isadora’s plot, however.

“I have never been able to do things halfway, and I hungered—literally hungered—for life and all it shades and hues: I was hooked on sensation, you might say, a lecher for perception and the nerve-knocking thrill, like a shot of opium, of new ‘experiences.’” 

This quote articulates one of the main reasons Rutherford is such a contrast with Jackson: He is driven by a desire for sensation and experience rather than rationality. This aspect of his character means he has more in common with the Romantic notion that such human experiences are more important than rationality, the focus of Enlightenment philosophy.