| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Equiano

This version was saved 16 years ago View current version     Page history
Saved by PBworks
on March 24, 2008 at 10:51:45 am
 

I just began "The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings" of Equiano and am finding it very "interesting." i first looked at his wiki page and got the x4 (>>>>) version of his life. this gave me an idea of what i had to look forward to in the book. Mainly I understood that this book was going to be big on the abolition of slavery. The book is more than that, it is a modest perspective on the lives of a people taken captive into a hard world of pain and suffering. Equiano provides a look at the communities that were destroyed by consumerism and colonization. Matt

 

 

One part of Equiano’s Narrative that I found interesting was the scene in which the ship captain renames him Gustavus Vassa.  "While I was on board this ship, my captain and master named me Gustavus Vassa. I at that time began to understand him a little, and refused to be called so, and told him as well as I could that I would be called Jacob; but he said I should not, and still called me Gustavus: and when I refused to answer to my new name, which I at first did, it gained me many a cuff; so at length I submitted, and by which I have been known ever since".

 

I think this naming nicely demonstrates Equiano’s struggle for self-empowerment from outside exertions of control.  He strongly attempts to reject his new name and the identity it comes along with.  In being renamed by his master Equiano was losing a sense of his identity.  But it is interesting that Equiano later accepts this name he had so previously protested, further highlighting the issues of identity Equiano and all displaced Africans faced.

 

 

 

Samantha Luceri

 

 

In Equiano we see a continuation of the same theme we have been discussing this semester.  The hero becomes successful because he adapts the customs of the white men.  He is treated kindly in many of his slavery situations and finally gains her freedom.  The most important custom he learns is the language.  English helps him assimilate to his masters and tell his story.  We are only reading his story because of this development.  His language and story was also important at the time to telling people in England his story and about slavery in the West Indies. 

 

 

Erica

 

I've read Equiano before (thanks, Paul) and I still find the controversy over the accuracy of his origin story very interesting.  Some (certainly not all) critics claim that Equiano fabricated some of his origin account by combining his own ideas with already-published slave narratives and accounts.  This raises two important questions about Equiano: 1) Can we trust him as an author?  Given the emotional integrity of his story, the details he provides, and the strength of his writing style, I don't think I can possibly distrust him.  Equiano as a figure - as a writer, a former slave, and an abolitionist - transcends any kind of petty assertion that he just might not have been telling the whole truth.  The other question I'd ask is: If Equiano flat-out made up some of his Narrative, does that make his novel any less important?  I honestly don't think that it would impact the way I read the book if the novel turned out to be less-than-accurate.  The tale of the man's struggle for freedom in The Interesting Narrative is powerful and gripping no matter who wrote it and why, and the fact that (I believe) it was completely true makes it that much more powerful.

 

Bryan

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.