The most interesting texts I find are the one’s that I know next to nothing about. All throughout this class, many of the texts that were analyzed I had previously been exposed to or was exposed to something similar. However this was not true for one of them. William Wells Brown’s Clotel was a story I had never heard in any of studies of slavery. In fact, before this class I had never heard of the Mulatto children before. Perhaps the most interesting piece of this story was Brown’s own confession at the end of the novella: “Some of the narratives I have derived from other sources; many of the lips of those who, like myself, have run away from the land of bondage” (Brown 226). Brown expressly admits that the story of Clotel is not just his own, it is hundreds of other freed slave’s stories. This simple fact is what makes this story so interesting to me. Coming from a background of knowing next to nothing about the Mulatto children, to read so many different stories condensed into one novella was a real treat.…show more content… Now out of these numerous stories contained within the pages of this novella, the story of Clotel trying to reunite with her daughter is perhaps the most alike with this idea of a hero (Brown ch.19). A woman who would give up her own freedom to save her daughter is something powerful. This story makes me wonder if I could be just as brave as Clotel. Would I be able to push aside my own personal gains for the gains of my child? Clotel resonated with me perhaps so much because of her heroics in this moment. She is putting her duty as a mother before her own self-interest. In a world where one’s sole focus on one’s self equals survival, this moment of Clotel’s story is most resonating to the reader. She is pictured as the hero just like the reader would like to believe himself to be, even if he knows unconsciously he is
