Chat Sumlin
ENGL-2210-016 Fall 2016
Paper 2
Alienation
In European literature romantic and modernist movements alienation was commonly used as a means to develop their characters in a more personal manner. Romanticism was less of a political movement, compared to other movements, rather it was more of a movement towards increasing intellectualism. During the age of romanticism authors were focused on deep thinking and the value of expression of thought, these themes go hand in hand with the idea of alienation. Authors in the romantic era utilized alienation to heighten the value of individualism in their work freeing themselves as well as their character from the constraints of society. Olaudah Equiano, an authors of the romantic era, wrote …show more content…
In the novel “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” one of the most extreme displays of alienation is when the main character, Equiano, is separated from his home town/village upon being kidnapped as a child. The author tells his story exploring how he had to adapt to the foreign culture of his masters that he was now apart of. Not only was he alienated culturally but he experienced multiple instances of racial, spiritual, and objectification throughout the novel. Firstly, and most obviously, the racial alienation was most notable since he was stolen away and sold into the slave trade. It was only because of this unfortunate series of events that Equiano was able to explore the culture of the west including learning about new religions and literature. This is clearly important to the progression of the plot but because Equiano “dis-covered my blackness, my ethnic characteristics; and I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetichism, racial defects, slave-ships, and above all else, above all: ‘Sho’ good eatin’”2 Knowledge is said to be power and from this quote it can be surmised that Equiano’s journeys to obtain more knowledge met some significant …show more content…
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”3 While this quote was used to establish that women’s inferior writing was due to the circumstance of their lives as women in what she describes as a patriarchal society, its interpretation can be shifted to the importance of . Woolf’s whole message in “A Room of One's Own” revolved around this idea that isolation was the only way that women would be able to successfully pursue a career in literature. She used alienation to build sympathy for her fictional characters when she first introduced them as who were never able to pursue their passions. Even though Woolf is exploring a scenario almost opposite to what Equiano depicts, she is still able to achieve the desired effect of deepening her character’s maturity. Judith Shakespeare is a great example of a character depicted in Woolf’s work who represented the textbook opposite of Equiano, someone unable to obtain any form of new knowledge through alienation. It was because of her failure to make the best out of her fate that she committed suicide, Woolf accredits this to the fact that she was unable to obtain isolation from society and while her character showed little to no maturity, it was that lack of maturity that spoke volumes as the reader. Woolf is able to construct the idea
ENGL-2210-016 Fall 2016
Paper 2
Alienation
In European literature romantic and modernist movements alienation was commonly used as a means to develop their characters in a more personal manner. Romanticism was less of a political movement, compared to other movements, rather it was more of a movement towards increasing intellectualism. During the age of romanticism authors were focused on deep thinking and the value of expression of thought, these themes go hand in hand with the idea of alienation. Authors in the romantic era utilized alienation to heighten the value of individualism in their work freeing themselves as well as their character from the constraints of society. Olaudah Equiano, an authors of the romantic era, wrote …show more content…
In the novel “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” one of the most extreme displays of alienation is when the main character, Equiano, is separated from his home town/village upon being kidnapped as a child. The author tells his story exploring how he had to adapt to the foreign culture of his masters that he was now apart of. Not only was he alienated culturally but he experienced multiple instances of racial, spiritual, and objectification throughout the novel. Firstly, and most obviously, the racial alienation was most notable since he was stolen away and sold into the slave trade. It was only because of this unfortunate series of events that Equiano was able to explore the culture of the west including learning about new religions and literature. This is clearly important to the progression of the plot but because Equiano “dis-covered my blackness, my ethnic characteristics; and I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetichism, racial defects, slave-ships, and above all else, above all: ‘Sho’ good eatin’”2 Knowledge is said to be power and from this quote it can be surmised that Equiano’s journeys to obtain more knowledge met some significant …show more content…
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”3 While this quote was used to establish that women’s inferior writing was due to the circumstance of their lives as women in what she describes as a patriarchal society, its interpretation can be shifted to the importance of . Woolf’s whole message in “A Room of One's Own” revolved around this idea that isolation was the only way that women would be able to successfully pursue a career in literature. She used alienation to build sympathy for her fictional characters when she first introduced them as who were never able to pursue their passions. Even though Woolf is exploring a scenario almost opposite to what Equiano depicts, she is still able to achieve the desired effect of deepening her character’s maturity. Judith Shakespeare is a great example of a character depicted in Woolf’s work who represented the textbook opposite of Equiano, someone unable to obtain any form of new knowledge through alienation. It was because of her failure to make the best out of her fate that she committed suicide, Woolf accredits this to the fact that she was unable to obtain isolation from society and while her character showed little to no maturity, it was that lack of maturity that spoke volumes as the reader. Woolf is able to construct the idea