Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How history reflect in literary work
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Equiano uses descriptive language to emotionally appeal to his readers by describing what he sees, smells, and hears. Equiano uses descriptive language to emotionally appeal what he viewed and witnessed on the ship. He saw a slave ship on the coast of the sea and he was soon carried on board. The men were white and had long hair according to Equiano. When he glanced around the ship he saw a massive furnace or copper boiling and he saw loads of black people which were chained together. Equiano had thought that they were going to be eaten by the white men that which have disgusting looks, red faces, and baggy hair. Equiano had never seen water before, so the first time he had saw it his first feeling was fear. The author writes that Equiano
witnessed poor African prisoners that had painfully cuts being whipped by the hour for not eating. The ship had reached the island of Barbados. The slaves viewed the harbor and other ships with different sizes and classifications. Equiano uses descriptive language to emotionally appeal what he smelled on the ship. Equiano smelled the repulsive stench. He became so sick he couldn’t even eat. The stench on the ship was unbearably repulsive. The smell was dangerous. Some slaves had the permission to stay on deck for fresh air. The air quickly developed into unhealthy respiration. The smells brought on sickness, therefore many died. Equiano uses descriptive language to emotionally appeal what he heard on the ship. Equiano heard different languages. He heard and saw slaves crying together. Equiano overheard the shrieks and groans of women whom were dying. He heard weird noises and had confusion among the people of the ship that he has never heard before. When the ship reached the island of Barbados he overheard the white men give a big shout and the men were jumping up and down with joy. The slaves had harsh cries that were heard all through the night. Equiano and the others were put up to be sold and before they were sold the people gave a signal which was heard as a beat of a drum for the buyers to show that the slaves are confined.
“ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to
Equiano was the youngest of his brothers who enjoyed playing outside throwing javelins enjoying the normal life of a small child. At the beginning of the day, the elders would leave their children at home while they went out into the fields to work. While they were gone, some of the children would get together to play but always took precautions of potential kidnappers. Even with all these precautions, people were still seized from their homes and taken away. Equiano was home one day with his little sister tending to the everyday household needs when out of nowhere they were captured by a couple men who had gotten over the walls. They had no time to resist or scream for help before they found themselves bound, gagged, and being taken away. Equiano had no idea where these people were taking him and they didn’t stop once until nightfall where they stayed until dawn. He tells us about how they traveled for many days and nights not having any clue where they were going or when they would get there. Slaves traveled by land and by sea, but Equiano’s journey was by sea. He tells us how he was carried aboard and immediately chained to other African Americans that were already on the ship. Once the ship halted on land, Equiano along with many other slaves were sent to the merchant’s yard where they would be herded together and bought by the
He describes the ways in which he was considered fortunate amongst other slaves. Equiano confessed that all of his masters were “worthy and humane”, they treated him right and even gave him the gift of literacy and religion (709). He compares his experience to the experience of other less fortunate individuals, and finds that treating slaves in a kinder manner actually benefits the slave owners (Equiano 709). Equiano states that the slaves under more solicitous masters “were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work” (709). Furthermore, he mentions how many malevolent slave owners would have to replace their slaves very often in order to make up for the amount of slaves that would die due to the harsh and unhealthy conditions that the slaves were put in (709). Equiano does all of this in order to try and reason with his audience in a more efficient way. Equiano realized that trying to convince his audience that slavery was completely wrong would not work due to the very strong views on it in his time. Instead he tries to convince his audience to change the manner in which they treat their slaves in order to benefit themselves, which consequently would benefit the slaves and contribute to their
This would lead him to a fantasy about what life would have been life back in Africa based on freedom. Equiano longed for freedom and suffered a traumatic experience (being enslaved) at a young age which may lead him to romanticize a different life. He believed that he would find his paradise in Africa. This can lead to a more favorable and positive view of Africa. He paints Africa as a place free of harm making him an unreliable source. By juxtaposing his freedom in Africa with his captivity in the colonies; he creates a biased image of his respective homeland. His reliability is questioned because he has no previous knowledge about life in Africa and only knows how it is described to him. His romanticized version of Africa gives a dynamic in his writing that negative towards the
Once forced into slavery, Equiano was introduced to a master. He had to abide by his master’s rules, for as long as he was with him, if he wanted to continue living. Equiano could be considered as a privileged slave because his masters were also on his side. His master favored him and sent him to his sister-in-law, Miss Guerin, in Great Britain to learn to read. Equiano accounts for his favoritism when he wrote, “Sometimes when a white man take away my fish I go to my master, and he get me my right; and when my master by strength take away my fishes, what me must do? I can’t go to anybody to be righted; then…I must look up to God Mighty in the top for right” (65). Equiano also stated that when nepotism was not in his favor, he just looked to God for his rights.
For example, when Equiano asserts “As if it were no crime in the whites to rob an innocent African girl of her virtue; but most heinous in a black man only to gratify a passion of nature, where the temptation was offered by one of a different color, though the most abandoned woman of her species (754),” he wishes to show the hypocrisy in the treatment of black men in comparison to white men. Invoking an emotional connection is an important element in literature, but especially during the Enlightenment. Illustrating that both blacks and whites share the common bond of humanity, helps makes Equiano’s narrative easier to digest. While some may criticize Equiano’s narrative for its accessibility, it fits with the theme of the
Equiano’s fortune landed him in the hands of a wealthy widow who purchased him from the traders who had kidnapped him. He lived the life as a companion to the widow and her son. Luck was on his side in this transaction, many slave owners frowned upon educating and assisting slaves. “Masters” typically feared an educated slave would take measures to make a change. He explains, though, how he held status above other slave under the widow’s ownership, “There were likewise slaves daily to attend us, while my young master and I,...
Equiano way of slavery is differently than that of Jacobs. Equaino was taken from his homeland of Africa. He was apart of what is known as the Middle Passage which was considered a deadly voyage for many slaves that were apart of this voyage across the Atlantic. After his arrival, he experience the hard labor. Jacobs, who was born into slavery was already born in what was considered the "New America". Equiano way of telling his narratives was in more of a chronological way with vivid description of what he was being faced with everyday. Jacobs not only told what slavery was like for her, but also provide more emotion than that of Equiano. She gave stories of others like slave that was previously own by Dr. Flint and fathering of other slave 's children. Unlike Equiano, he was given his other name of Gustavus Vassa by his master, Jacobs wrote her narrative under the name of Linda Bendt and changed names of others in her narrative in order to protect the reputation of those . Although Equiano talks about what woman 's went through during slavery, it was Jacobs he gave more of an in-depth of it with dealing with lust from a master and only being known as the property of her master and her master only. Both authors expressed in their own way that once you fall into slavery, you lose sense of who you are and the morals you were brought up
The story of Equiano and Shakespeare’s Othello share common elements though both differ in quite unique ways. However, both were published about two hundred years apart, both represented Africans in a parallel yet diverse light. Equiano’s story is told in first person and you are able to walk as he walks, see what he sees and even feel what he felt when he was taken into slavery. Though there is controversy that he was actually born in South Carolina, his text is nonetheless very compelling. I would not be able to fathom a person who would make up such a harsh and depressing read in order to get some kind of emotion out of the reader. In the case of Othello, Shakespeare has made up his character in the way that he believed him to be perceived as. Though he did a good job in constructing Othello’s backstory, there were many flaws in Othello’s character and personality. Equiano and Othello have started out as free men but, become enslaved and eventually buy back their freedom. How they resumed their lives afterwards is where they differ in the biggest way. One leaves behind his “uncivilized” life and assimilated himself in a new culture and environment and thrives while the other, having been a prince in his own right became “civilized” after freeing himself from enslavement and even gained power in a government but, reverts back to the perceived “animalistic” African that white people have viewed and enslaved. Both characters hardships changed them from the innocent and naïve boys they once were into men with the desire to overcome the boundaries of their skin color.
After inhabiting the Island of Barbados for a few days Equiano and many others deemed unsaleable were shipped off to North America. Unlike his journey aboard the ship to Barbados, the conditions Equiano encountered were more favorable and feasible than before. He feasted upon rice and pork and was treated better than he had been before. Not long after, the ship landed near Virginia County, where there had been hardly any Africans. For weeks, he worked in the fields, weeding grass and gathering stones, while all the slaves amongst him were sold off until only he remained. Sadly, at this point, Equiano wished for death now more than ever. He was alone and isolated with no one to talk to, unlike the slaves that had been sold off together, and he felt as though his conditions were far worse than theirs and he longed for
Equiano revealed just how miserable and horrid the ‘middle passage’ was. Frequently, he witnessed fellow slaves dying one after another due to the awful conditions within the boat(such as suffocation due to poor air quality) or purposefully killing themselves. He also talks about how serious it was for both parties, with both the slaves and whites facing death if they were to make mistakes. Equiano explains, “I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw… flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute.”(Equiano 75)
The language used portrays the characters thoughts and emotions for example she goes into great detail about her surroundings (her life) and the events which had taken place there .She talks about her environment as if she is closely connected with the associations to which she describes.
In, conclusion the experiences of Equiano’s servitude in Africa differed from his experience in England. The African slave trade primarily was based upon providing jobs to families or punishment to real criminals. Many times the cruel example of being kidnapped from your village and forced into this way of life was also prevalent. This narrative contains the terrifying events of a young a child being held captive. The sources we have of the truth from this period of time are limited and hard to obtain. Servitude still exists to today in many parts of Africa and will remain a common part of their
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano” is a captivating story in which Equiano, the author, reflects on his life from becoming a slave to a freeman during the 19th century. Through his experiences and writing, Equiano paints a vivid picture of the atrocities and cruelties of European slavery. Ultimately through his narrative, Equiano intends to persuade his audience, the British government, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade as well as alert them of the harsh treatment of slaves. He successfully accomplishes his goal by subtly making arguments through the use of character, action, and setting.
In the Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano starts right out in the beginning with his story. He starts out with introducing his life as a free African. This could be seen as part of his narrative plot to show the reader how happy he was in his homeland. After the introduction, there is then the story of his life as a slave. This is where sympathetic tactics are initiated of how he was abducted and taken to a different country. There was even a line that hit the emotions of all dead on. He questions that, “ O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” (Equiano 209). That simple line phrased the entire meaning of what a slave narrative was. He sought out the sympathy of others by using religion to captivate and then motivate them to support slaves having rights like other humans. During this time, religion was a very big entity. She was able to call out the slave masters on their hypocrisy in their religion. She was pointing out the facts saying one thing while doing the other. This is one of the most powerful w...