ipl-logo

Olaudah Equiano Literary Devices

852 Words4 Pages

Today’s society understands the evil entangled with slavery, but America once routinely practiced it. Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved African who lived through the tragic and corrupt acts of the slave trade writes about his struggles in an autobiography. Equiano exposes the turpitude behind the bondage of blacks by employing the power of literary elements. He tells the appalling story of his life with rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques in order to promote a policy of equality and advance a movement of emancipation from slavery. Olaudah Equiano uses imagery, emotional appeal, and persuasive language in “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” to show the reader the theme that society has no place for slavery and the …show more content…

People consider a slave ship in the 1700s one of the scariest and most dangerous places on Earth at the time. Equiano describes the wicked conditions of the transatlantic slave trade and its affects on him and his peers. Equiano writes, “One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together, preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea,” (Equiano 173). In these lines Equiano gives the reader an idea of the horrifying events on the ships including the death of his companions. Portraying this to readers helps them empathize with his experiences through the imagery of his work. Slave ships drain Africans mentally but also physically. Unsanitary and dangerous ships hold hundreds of slaves in the bottom of them making conditions unbearable. Equiano documents these conditions saying, “Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many,” (Equiano). Many slaves die from these egregious conditions if they chose not to attempt suicide. Diseases of all kinds and the lack of food plague the slaves and kill many. Equiano relives his trauma in great detail to give the reader an image of the slave ships. He does this to convince people that slavery ultimately must come to an

Show More
Related

  • Literary Devices In Obasan

    143 Words  | 1 Pages

    Obasan written by Joy Kogawa is a moving novel translating the silence breaching upon the Japanese Canadians during the late 1940s. Obasan is a novel that looks back towards the discrimination and prejudice through the hidden Canadian History. The perspective of the story is told in first person of the main character, Naomi. Kogawa’s literary style brings life to characters such as naomi, describing her experience of silence and cultural separation with just only words. Living through first perspective not only reveals detailed imagery of the surrounding, but the beliefs, thoughts and fears of Naomi.

    Read More

  • Marcus Rediker The Slave Ship

    552 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Slave Ship, by Marcus Rediker was wrote in 2007 about the cruel and brutal actions the slaves endured on their journey across the Atlantic Ocean. He states, “this has been a painful book to write, if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read.” Marcus Rediker accomplished exactly that. This book was not only compelling but emotional, heartbreaking, and makes a reader think, how could someone be so cruel to another living being. Within the first couple pages, the book brought me to tears.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Olaudah Equiano

    1040 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this novel both of these men tell their stories and give us an insight on how their lives were living in slavery. Their narratives go into detail on how they were treated, what they saw, and what their own experiences were trying to escape. Olaudah Equiano

    Read More

  • When Was The Gruesome Account Of Olaudah Equiano

    405 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Equiano’s case, this seems to have worked since he stated, “This made me fear these people the more…” (Equiano). Additionally, the horrors of these slave ships did not end with the brutality of the crew. “The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself…the air soon became unfit for respiration…and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died” (Equiano). For these slaves, death came at the hands of their captors and through disease. The perilous journey that led Equiano to a new land was similar to the journey of many slaves and servants across the

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Olaudah Equiano

    785 Words  | 4 Pages

    He describes the anguish, anxiety and despair that surrounded him on the slave ship with vivid detail. He leaves no detail spared as he describes slaves throwing themselves off of the boat seeing death as a better alternative than the fate that awaits them. Equino uses imagery in his text to show the reader the anguish they felt and appeals to the readers emotions to elicit a response to the wrongdoings of the white men that had enslaved them and kept them in such horrible conditions. For example he writes, “One day they had taken a number of fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they thought fit, to our astonishment who were on the deck, rather than give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again…”(pg. 173) this shows the reader the cruelty of the men on the boat and makes the reader feel an emotion.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Equiano And Mary Rowlandson

    1213 Words  | 5 Pages

    While aboard the ship, the slaves were placed in a common living quarter under the deck of the ship; hundreds of slaves were packed like sardines and chained during the voyage across the Atlantic. When first introduced to a new setting, under the deck, Equiano remarks, “there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: So that with the loathsomeness of the stench and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat…” (Rowlandson 56). Equiano was placed in an environment with sickening conditions compared to Rowlandson’s discomfort and change of standard of living that made her conditions

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Equiano And Frederick Douglass

    1759 Words  | 8 Pages

    Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass, both experienced the hardship of enslavement at a youthful age. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they both wrote narratives explaining the lives they experienced as slaves or expressed the lives slaves lived. During this time period, slaves experienced miserable lifestyles, along with unforgettable scarring moments forced upon them by their commanders. Although they lived in different time periods, both of their narratives about the life of slavery to freedom have similar and dissimilar details. Their personal first-handed narratives presented to the world the harsh treatment slaves endured and the weakness they must show to survive.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Inhumane Essay

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    The story of Frederick Douglass’ is one of the most gruesome stories ever written in American literary history. The narrative goes in-depth about how the process of slavery was. It talks about how people would get whipped for the smallest of issues, dying if they resist enough, and even the process of the slave trade. It even shows how people become very different after the entire system of slavery gets into their minds. Through his powerful narrative, Frederick Douglass demonstrates how slavery dehumanizes not only the enslaved but also the enslaver, as it strips individuals of their basic humanity and perpetuates a system of cruelty and oppression.

    Read More

  • Olaudah Equiano Ethos Pathos Logos

    679 Words  | 3 Pages

    The trade of African slaves in the 17th century was perceived as so commonplace that a good deal of the world's population gave it little or no thought. British involvement with slavery became unavoidable at the end of the 17th century, when abolitionist literature gained public attention. The first hand account of life as a slave in Olaudah Equiano's auto-biography was like no other piece of abolitionist literature at the time. The three methods of persuasion in his writing are ethical appealing ethos, logic engaging logos, and his most effective of emotional appealing pathos. Equiano's use of pathos in his auto-biography was effective in persuading the British that slavery is wrong, because of the emotional effects, such as misery, sympathy,

    Read More

  • Equiano In Black Robe

    700 Words  | 3 Pages

    The appearance of the Atlantic world, especially to the eyes of Equiano, was one that could be described as interesting. We are introduced to a young colored man who has been forced into a new country due to the acts of slavery and is in fear of his life, while in the movie Black Robe, we are introduced to how a Jesuit priest comes to a new land in order to convert the natives of that country. In this essay, readers will be introduced to how a colored person sees a world differently unlike one who comes from such a country such as Europe. On page 91, Equiano starts off by explaining his conditions in his new master 's quarters and how he is shown the graphic details of being a slave, by seeing a woman, who is his own skin color, muzzled

    Read More

  • Olaudah Equiano Sparknotes

    689 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, African author Olaudah Equiano wrote about his life and experiences after being sold into the slave trade. Equiano used his writing to expose the horrors of slavery and the agony he and other slaves faced. He wrote with the hope that by exposing the horrors that slaves endure, people would realize how wicked slavery was and put an end to it. Equiano spoke about his encounters with white men in the Middle Passage and how he was terrified of them in chapter two of his book. As they examined him when he initially boarded the ship, he described how he was terrified: "I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me."

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass An American Slave Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    732 Words  | 3 Pages

    By appealing to the emotions of the reader, Frederick Douglass can build his argument of how awful slavery was and how the slave owners used Christianity to justify what they did. In the book, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author uses his language to bring meaning to what he is writing. He creates an emotional connection to the reader using pathos, and builds his argument using the credibility of others, using ethos. In his book he uses his words to prove his argument to the reader of how the slave owners would use Christianity to justify slavery and violence, and how slavery affected everyone who was

    Read More

  • Captivity And Enslavement, By Olaudah Equiano

    1405 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Negative Effects On Slaves

    753 Words  | 4 Pages

    Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

    Read More

  • How Does Wollstonecraft Address The Degradation Of Women

    1141 Words  | 5 Pages

    Through allusive words and phrases, the author shines light on the debasing treatment of slaves, and ultimately

    Read More

More about Olaudah Equiano Literary Devices

Open Document