English 3 Honors
Ms. Rubio
February 26, 2014 Analysis Essay on the Narrative of Equiano
Equiano when he was 11, he was kidnapped and from that day on, his happiness had faded away. “Trained up from my earliest years in the art of war” (57). This shows when he got kidnapped all of this was just a distant memory and the pleasure of it was gone. Through the use of diction and imagery, Equaino explains the destructiveness.
Diction demonstrates the hypocrisy of the slave owners. The hypocrisy of the slave owners validates the exclusion of human rights. “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not and
African ask you learned you this for god who says unto you” (65). The word ‘Nominal’ means relating to or constituting or bearing or giving a name. Therefore, this means that the hypocritical Christians are not doing as God would like them to. They aren’t treating slaves the way that god would, Equiano relates the time of his separation with his sister, “For my sister and
I were than separated while we lay clasped in each other’s arms” (59). ‘Clasped’ means to grasp something tightly with one's hand. The word was used because they were holding onto each other tightly and didn’t want to let go because they knew that eventually they were going to be separated. This Demonstrates how slavers did not care whether they were happy or not, or if they felt good or not, and how slavers seemed as if they heartless people. It didn’t bother them if they were separated from their families as long as they were getting production from their slaves.
Imagery magnifies that the struggle that the slaves were in. The struggle of freedom portrays the slave owners treatment toward the slaves. “I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating what they serve you, or force you to eat,” (62). Imagery is an element that gives you that mental picture of what you read and then you imagine it happening because your picturing it in your head. This conveys how the white men treated the slaves for pursuing freedom and how they were being cut and severely beaten. This destroyed their lives. The