The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Who is visible, and for what reasons, is a major theme throughout the novel. As the story is told from Frannie’s perspective, much of the focus is on making her story known. She has been erased, maligned, and discriminated against. Her manuscript is a way for her to correct the record. The entire novel is a case presented by Frannie to preserve her experiences of reality and make them visible to others. This concern for how others perceive her is not limited to Frannie’s composition of her manuscript. In both Jamaica and England, she is concerned with presenting herself as someone respectable, with the hopes that this will make her respected. She trains herself to speak without using the vernacular used by the others enslaved on the plantation, is careful over her clothes and concerned about their appearance, and uses her words to show others how well read and cultured she is. She tries to mimic the behavior of upper-class Englishmen, as the things they have access to—respect, knowledge, and influence—are the things she desires for herself. Frannie knows the value others place on image, and crafts her own to try to achieve her goals.