Question

Reading Selection is Equiano's Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (Must be 4-5 paragraphs)

Briefly introduce the writer and the situation that this reading is about. Identify the genre or nature of the reading.

Using specific examples or lines within the reading, suggest the author’s key views and key aims for the reading audience.

Evaluate the author’s strategy and what you see as the work’s likely effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) for the target audience. If there is any known historical result, discuss that.

Evaluate how the reading impacted you. Identify any analogous situations today, and also key lessons you get from the reading that could be relevant to one’s professional and personal life.    

Answer 1

ANS) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789 in London,is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The narrative is argued to be a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative.The book describes Equiano's time spent in enslavement, and documents his attempts at becoming an independent man through his study of the Bible, and his eventual success in gaining his own freedom and in business thereafter. The genre or the nature of reading is Slave Narratives.

The main theme of this narrative is -Slavery in africa and west America,The African slave's voyage from Africa to the Americas and England,The journey from slavery to freedom and parallel journey from heathenism to Christianity and Institutional slavery corrupting the master with the power and slave.Equiano influenced literature to come as well. Many credit Equiano with helping to create the genre of the slave narrative. This genre came to have as much political impact, if not more, as it did literary impact.

Equiano opens his Narrative by explaining the struggle that comes with writing a memoir. Equiano is very passionate about the hardships that writers go through. He also explains that they often have to defend themselves from those who remain critical about the truth of their work. He also apologizes to his readers in advance for not having the most exciting story, but hopes that it serves to be helpful to other slaves in his position. He states, "I am neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant." He begins his story with a description of his homeland and the district in which he was born.

INchapter 2-Equiano refers to white people as cruel, greedy, and mean. He is very surprised by the way they relate to each other, as they are even cruel between them, not only to the slaves. However, as he meets more white people and learns about their culture he comes to the conclusion that the white men are not inherently evil but that institutional slavery has made them cruel and callous.

in ch-6, Equiano explaining that he has seen a lot of bad and unfair things happen as a slave. He recounts a specific event that happened.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was one of the first widely read slave narratives.The different kinds of aspects and ideas in his narrative, such as travel, religion, and slavery, cause some readers to debate what kind of narrative his writing is: a slavery narrative, a spiritual narrative, or a travel narrative.

Equiano's novel is obviously influenced by other literature as well. The detailed accounts of his adventures are reminiscent of picaresque adventures and action-adventure novels.