Roots: The Saga of an American Family Family Quotes

This is pretty indicative of Kunta's youth, which is as picturesque as you can get. He has loving parents. He has fun brothers. He has a whole life ahead of him. What could possibly go wrong?

The relationship between Kunta and his little brother Lamin is so adorable it causes us physical pain. Ouchies. On a serious note, Lamin's adoration of Kunta actually helps his big bro grow up, as Kunta feels a greater responsibility to do good knowing he's someone's role model.

Kunta's terrified of Omoro's wrath when his inattention leads a goat to be chewed up by a panther, but Omoro instead treats it as a teachable moment. That's some quality dad work right there. Instead of holding his son's failure over his head, he uses it to bring them closer together.

Before this, Kunta had never really considered marrying a woman and starting a family here in the awful land of the toubob. But what's the point of that? Through this conversation, Kunta realizes that having a family is exactly how he can continue his proud ancestral heritage into the future.

This is interesting, right? For Kunta, the idea of family is inexorably tied to his early life in Africa, to his loving parents and the comforting rituals of his native culture. Perhaps he'll be able to reconnect to that long-long past through his new daughter.

Kunta feels revitalized after marrying Bell and having Kizzy, but witnessing the horror of a slave auction reminds him that this bliss could be stolen away from him at any moment. The separation of families was extremely common during the heights of American slavery, and its consequences were profound.

Although it was insanely traumatic for Kizzy to be stolen away from her parents at such a young age, the sad truth is that she's way better off than most enslaved people in America, many of whom never met either one of their parents, much less both. Despite what's happened to her, it's up to Kizzy to carry that legacy into the future.

Heck of a way to tell your son that his owner is his father, huh? As you can imagine, this revelation really throws Chicken George for a loop, forcing him to reckon with the fact that his dad has done unspeakably evil things to him and his family.

This one's a biggie, as it shows us that the family is literally held together by the oral traditions passed down from Kunta through Kizzy. Chicken George sometimes struggles to be a family man, but Kunta's legacy is a constant reminder of the importance of staying together.

Family is about more than blood, however. Chicken George has always had a confusing relationship with his biological father, Massa Tom Lea. Because of the inner turmoil caused by this knowledge, he missed out on the fact that Uncle Mingo was a true father figure to him.