Americans have long been fascinated with the captive narrative genre. Hearing a story about a person being taken from their home to a whole new place has captivated many Americans’ idea of a thrilling adventure and the thoughts and feelings of those who have been captured. Two popularly known narratives, A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, focus on their adventures of being a captive. While these narratives are different, there are many similarities between the two.
All captivity narratives contain a great amount of sorrow. Both Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano have a melancholy experience while being captives. For instance, Mary retells the tragic event of her daughter dying from wounds given to her during the kidnapping and her other children being taken from her and wasn’t allowed to see them (66). Similarly, Olaudah suffers a loss as well, when his sister was torn from him, not only
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once, but twice, as well as never seeing the rest of his family ever again (23). Although they both experienced much sorrow, Olaudah suffered more than Mary. Such as, Olaudah being kidnapped as a child, whereas, Mary was taken as an adult (24). Olaudah also had to endure many days on a slave ship and had to stay below deck with other slaves and a suffocating stench that had killed some slaves (32). Overall, Olaudah dealt with much more sorrow than Mary during his captivity. All captives feel a certain way about their captors. Although they are in a somewhat similar situations, Mary and Olaudah have diverse feelings towards their captors. For example, Mary believes that her captors are barbaric Pagans that will do her harm (67). Identically, Olaudah, while on the slave ship, thought his captors “were spirits,” (31) and that he was going to be “eaten by these ugly men,” (33). Even though both thought badly of their captors, Mary was more understanding of her captors towards the end. While Olaudah was afraid of his captors, Mary believed that her captors were below her and was judgemental towards the chief when he started to smoke (67). Ironically, Mary used to smoke, but saw it as a sin ever since she was captured (67). As can be seen, Mary and Olaudah have mixed feelings for their captors. The treatment of captives varies depending on the captors; some are merciful, but most are cruel.
Both Mary and Olaudah had merciful captors, but unfortunately, Olaudah had cruel ones as well. Mary was treated kindly and her captors adopted her and paid her for her sewing skills (68). Olaudah was also treated kindly and “never met with any ill treatment,” (27), with his first captors, which “made [him] forget that [he] was a slave,” (28). But sadly, not all of Olaudah’s captors were kind-hearted like the first ones. During his time on the slave ship, Olaudah “wished for [his] former slavery in preference to [his] present situation,” (31). But life gets even harder for Olaudah, like when he and other slaves were starving and the crewmen caught many fish and “rather than give any of them to [them] to eat as [they] expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea,” (32). Mary, on the other hand, was able to buy her own food and cook it (69). Overall, Olaudah was treated worse by his captors than
Mary. Although both narratives are different, they are similar in many ways. In fact, Mary and Olaudah both experience sorrow by the lost of loved ones, they both felt fear towards their captors, and were treated kindly by them most of the time. As can be seen, Mary and Olaudah are both strong and brave for surviving and telling their story.
In constructing “ The Unredeemed Captive,” John Demos uses many styles of writing. One of the most pronounced styles used in this book is an argumentative style of writing. John Demos argues many points throughout the book and makes several contradictions to topics discussed previously in the work. John Demos also uses several major themes in the book, suck as captivity, kinship, negotiation, trade, regional and national development, and international relations. Each one of these themes, in my opinion, are what separate the book into its major sections.
There are various things that make up a piece of literature. For example: choice of diction, modes of discourse, and figurative language. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano were great examples of authors that used these elements of literature. There are similarities and differences in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and From Africa to America. Though Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano shared similarities in experiences, they had different writing personalities, purposes, attitudes, tones, and relations with their communities.
Olaudah tells the story of slavery from a different perspective; “Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country.” “I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and loose hair. They told me I was not.”
In the article, “The Cause of Her Grief”, Anne Warren tells us a story of a slave woman ordered to be raped and forced to reproduce. Warren first begins telling the slave woman story by taking us back and recollecting the slave woman’s voyage from her home land to the ownership of Mr. Maverick. She used vivid language during this passage to help the reader imagine what type of dissolute conditions she traveled in to end up being a rape victim. For example in the section where Warren attempts to describe the condition of her travel. She wrote “When speaking of the origins of captured slaves, we are often reduced to generalities”. (Warren 1039) In that moment she addresses the fact that as readers we often over simplify the idea of slavery and what it was like, we could only imagine. The author uses the words “captured slave” to set the wretched and forced precedent for the remainder of the reading. At this moment she is requiring that you imagine being captured, held upon your rightful will of freedom. This is important to the slave experience; they did not have a choice just as this woman had no choice. She goes on to address the conditions of the vessel on which the salve woman traveled. She wrote “crammed into the holds of wooden ships, trapped in excrement, vomit and sweat” (Warren 1040). This was yet another demand from the author for the reader to place themselves in the feet of the slaves. It is also another key element in understanding not only slavery but also John Maverick’s slave woman. She travelled weeks, sometimes months to make arrive at the given destination. Once the slave woman arrived to land it was time for her to be sold. Yet again we are now asked by the author to paint a more vivid picture of the slavery exp...
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
Adapting to life after being held hostage or kidnapped can be just as difficult as abruptly leaving it. According to the American
Trapped Narrator Bondwoman's Narrative is written by a person who called itself as Hannah Crafts. But since the book was a manuscript before the editor bought from an auction and published recently, it is not clear yet who actually wrote this book. However it is strongly supposed by its editor and other reviewers that the book is the first novel of a slave woman. The value of a narrative from a fugitive or former slave is significant in terms of historical context because of its relevance to understanding eighteenth and nineteenth century American history. (Andrews, 1)
Olaudah Equiano demonstrates a shift in tone from dark to fanciful while on the ship highlighting the true tragedy of enslaving young children. In the compacted ship, Equiano describes hearing “the shrieks of women, and the groans of the dying… (as) a scene of horror” (45). Equiano darkly describes his everyday life leading up to slavery as a “scene of horror”. The author's strategic use of diction ultimately creates sympathy from the reader as he explains the hardships of slavery. Soon after, men from the ship “make [Equiano]... look through…(a) quadrant…heighten[ing] (his) wonder (and) persuad[ing] (equiano) that [he] was in another world...and that everything...was magic” (47). Despite his terrible situation, Equiano is still able to find
After reading the slavery accounts of Olaudah Equiano 's "The Life of Olaudah Equiano" and Harriet Jacobs ' "Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl", you gain knowledge of what slaves endured during their times of slavery. To build their audience aware of what life of a slave was like, both authors gives their interpretation from two different perspectives and by two different eras of slavery.
Two slave narratives that are noticed today are “ The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass” written by Douglass himself, and “ The Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl” written by Harriet Jacobs. Both of these works contain the authors own personal accounts of slavery and how they were successfully able to escape. Although their stories end with both Douglass and Jacobs being freed, they share a similar narrative of the horrifying experience of a slave.
Lee, Desmond. “The Study of African American Slave Narratives “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and “Narrative of Frederick Douglass”.” Studies of Early African americans. 17 (1999): 1-99. Web. EBSCO
In this final research analysis, I will be doing a comparison between the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” to show how both Douglass and Rowlandson use a great deal of person strength and faith in God to endure their life and ultimately gain their freedom.
Even though Rowlandson’s character is visibly troubled by the problems she went through in her story, A Narrative of The Captivity, her character shows strength, courage, and perseverance. Rowlandson’s character has been through so much; she lost her five-year-old child, was separated from her children, and even starved; through all of this, she still finds a way to pull through. Throughout her journey, she has been through hard times of loss and sacrifice. Lots of people have lost their family members, many others have been separated due to war or famine. Today, people still go through similar struggles and have to sacrifice certain things to make it in life. This story is something that people in the modern world can somewhat relate too. Much like the “hidden agenda” too often seen in captivity narratives such as Rowlandson’s, modern-day politics uses the pathos appeal to get sympathy and/or support from the viewer.
Also, the ship’s crew often treated the Africans badly; they often whipped them because many of the people resisted and tried to escape from the cargo ship.
Characters from both "Olalla" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" suffer various forms of physical confinements as results of the burden of ancestral...