Being kidnapped is not something you want to experience. Has someone important in your life ever been kidnapped? In the narratives of Equiano and Rowlandson they tell why and how they were kidnapped. Nobody but the person who has been kidnapped will understand how scary it can be. In “A Narrative Of The Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olauhdah Equiano “ they have similarities and differences that they each can relate to by their stories of being kidnapped.
Rowlandson is never beaten nor tortured. The actions are hardly what one would expect from “savages.” Conversely, Rowlandson mentions her taking of food from a child because they could not chew it (277). This episode shows another side of Rowlandson, one that is not at all compatible with the Biblical sentiments she so often alludes
There is no captivity novel that contains nothing but pleasure and comfort. In other words, every captivity novel contains a large amount of sorrow. In the narratives, Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano both experienced massive amounts of misfortune during their periods of captivity. For example, Rowlandson writes of her daughter dying from wounds she sustained during the mass kidnapping, murder, and pillage
He further states, “Two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely” (130). This demonstrates how he was in an unknown situation since he was captured by white people who flogged him “severely” because he did not want to eat. By describing such experience, Equiano demonstrates the hardships many slaves had to go through in order to survive. In his case, he was taken away by these people he had never seen before, making him feel “filled of horrors of every kind”
Thus, we can see how each story of the captives help reveal the different feelings one might have while being held and dehumanized like Equiano and Rowlandson were. This is important because both rowlandson and Equiano were subject to torture, humiliation, and slavery. So, how would you react if you had someone you loved being subject to all these horrible, abusive
Both the stories of Equitan and Guigemar invoke the debate between selfish love and selfless love. The character Equitan embodies the principles of chivalry, where he is “much admired and much beloved in his own land” (Marie de France 13-14). Although he embodies the ideal man for courtly love, Equitan is selfish when he enters relationships. Equitan pursues the seneschal’s wife and they enter an affair with each other. This affair is comprised of physical attraction and has no moderation at all.
For Equiano to be able to make the readers see the reversal of perceptions about white people, Equiano needs to separate himself and produce this sense of exceptionalism through first person pronouns. Once he establishes himself
Rowlandson states “some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody Heathen ready to knock us on the head” (487). People including her relatives and neighbors were shot, wounded, and brutally killed. She and her youngest daughter were wounded. They were taken alive and held as captives by the Native Indians. At some point, she felt she has lost everything and everyone except for her life.
17.1 Captivity and Enslavement, Olaudah Equiano, the interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano written by himself 1. What are Equiano’s impressions of the white men on the ship and their treatment of the slaves? How does this treatment reflect the slave traders’ primary concerns? Equiano’s first impression of these white men is a feeling of uncertainty and sorrow for the future. As his story goes on Equiano is afraid of these white men, but also he is wishing to end it all because of the conditions and treatment of the slaves.
This analysis studies Phelan’s quest for attaining forgiveness and reconciliation rested on improving four important ongoing struggles, relationships, economic status, dependence, and depression. Upon the death of his child, Francis, completely shattered, unable to ever express the situations to anyone. Francis had just turned from “Father” to “Killer”, because “Gerald
In the story, the protagonist Winifred explains about her past experiences with her elder brother Zachary from her early years of admiration to her later years facing the similar circumstances of her brother with her youngest daughter Stephanie. During her younger years, Winifred admired her eldest brother and appeared as an obedient slave to him. Later on, however, she then faces with the disillusionment as her brother’s habits are warped to extreme measures such as smoking and drinking which later accumulates to the sorrow that she and her family faced from losing their youngest daughter Lizzie to leukemia. The death also strikes a permanent blow on Zachary, who later leaves the family due to his strained relationship with his
Meanwhile the children were naive, everything that their father would say and do they believed. The narrator and his brothers’ were filled with preconceived thoughts of their father and their family’s relationship dynamics. Their father’s abusive actions were not only towards their mother, but also directed towards them. As a child, this could have clogged up their definition of
For example, although she is consumed with worry and fear over the state of her children, Rowlandson finds immense relief when one of her captors gives her a Bible he took from a neighboring settlement. However, Rowlandson finds greater relief when she “opened [her] Bible to read, and the Lord brought that precious Scripture to [her]” (Rowlandson 264). Rowlandson believes that God is playing an active role in her life through guiding her to scripture in order to bring her relief and comfort during her extended captivity. Additionally, Rowlandson believes God is directly intervening in her daily life by looking out for her and protecting her during her captivity. To explain, while traveling with her captors, Rowlandson is told she must cross a river to escape a search party despite the cold weather; although some members of her company were submerged waist deep into the frigid water, Rowlandson “did not wet [her] foot…which cannot but be acknowledged as a favor of God to [her] weakened body” (Rowlandson 265).
Despite that, Mr Edwards loves Catherine. “He didn’t dare accuse her for fear she would go away” (94). Their relationship uncovers that love can be generous and kind, but also possessiveness and
Due to the famous rest treatment in which the narrator is told to follow, her interactions with other individuals is severely limited. Most of her social interactions are between her and her husband John. The narrator’s relationship with her husband is considered to