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Olauda Equiano Age Of Reason Analysis

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Many changes occurred during the long 18th century which were highly influenced by the Enlightenment era. A written work called The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olauda Equiano by Olauda Equiano states the difficulties Africans went through during the 18th century that made the Enlightenment era. While writing his novel during the Age of Reason, Equiano employed logical appeal, emotional appeal, and focused on making a call for social improvements, which were typical aspects in writing from this period. The purpose of this writing is to persuade others to take action on slavery using emotional appeals. While Equiano is on the ship, he experiences many impacting adversities.The whites caring for the Africans do not treat the Africans …show more content…

For example, Equiano mentions that at times on the deck he see's his companions come up dead, and so he says, "which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries" (172). At this point, he wants his audience to know that leaving the wretched ship is better than living through misery. This is an example of emotional appeal that provoked empathy towards the Africans. Also, he describes the smells of the ship. Equiano says, "the air soon became unfit for respiration from the variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves of which may died" (172). Equiano uses an emotional appeal to persuade his audience to act upon these harsh conditions. The air became dangerous to the people, and as a result, many lives are lost. Equiano uses this imagery to sway people to produce a more advanced future. Lastly, two Africans who are chained together "jumped into the sea" preferring to die rather than live in a perpetual state of distress (173). This shows how much suffering the whites brought upon the slaves. This is an example of emotional appeal in the writing developed from the Age of Reason. If Equiano can emotionally induce the audience to stop slavery, or bring out better conditions on those who are slaves, then his purpose is fulfilled. Equiano wants his audience to see this to make a social change, as part of the Enlightenment

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