Austerlizt Experience Analysis

Improved Essays
Austerlitz continue his journey about finding his past. History has a way that it can physically and mentally affect an individual, in Austerlitz’s case, it caused him to have several mental breakdowns. While resting due to one of his mental breakdowns, Austerlitz has an epiphany , this time in a bookshop. While listening to the radio, which features two women discussing the summer of 1939, when, as children, they had come on the ferry Prague to England, as part of the Kindertransport which he also experienced as a child. This moment helped him remember his suppressed childhood memories about being kindertransported. He stated “Only then did I know beyond any doubt that these fragments of memory were part of my own life as well” (145). From …show more content…
Africans were taking from Africa by force, then they were sold, beaten, rape and dehumanize as people. They were treated as less than human, as object to be exact. Due to being stolen, these African lost their identity, their history. Their names, their cultures, their backgrounds were all taken away from them and they had no control whatsoever. We can never know how many people were taken or which slaves were identified as who because they did not really keep records. Slaves were impotant, they were properties. Most slaves were named after their masters, these people where given the same name as the people who oppressed them. The language, the culture, the religion were all taken away. Any achievement, or cultures that had prior to being a slave was forgotten. Most people, African descendants believes that African history began with slavery. Slavery is all we learn in school, we don’t know what the African people were prior to slavery, we don’t even know where to begin to search for these answers. This class fueled my interest into finding my history, I have been doing research in African History and I discovered there is DNA testing that could reveal where you are from in Africa. This could help me determine where my ancestors came from, which is better than what I know right now which is nothing. Just like Austerlizt I want to find answers at the same time I don’t think I am physically or emotionally ready for the truth. What If I discover that I was originally from Congo which is located in West Africa. Most slaves were captured in Africa. There is nothing wrong with being from the Congo, but to find out that even if my ancestors were not captured and sold into slavery, they could have had a even a worse life than they actually did or my ancestors could have been killed with the millions that were massacre in the Congo, right if my ancestors were not captured. I don’t want to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Why is it important to document hidden histories? Before viewing Slavery by Another Name (2012), I was not fully aware of the atrocities committed against African Americans after slavery had been abolished. I knew that newly freed slaves had a hard time adjusting to freedom, but I never fathomed the oppression and torment they were subjected to as free Americans. My history classes throughout my education never included information regarding involuntary servitude and laws that were created to deliberately re-enslave African Americans and prevent them from having mobility.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They were not even people, they were treated like objects because of their natural differences. The inhumane treatment of Africans led to the American civil war, one of the bloodiest wars that had an influential impact on history. After slavery was abolished, similar situations like slavery occurred during the railroad construction and industrialization. The owners of the railroad employed Chinese, Mexicans and Irish to work hard labor for an incredibly small amount of of money. They initially refused to hire Asians at first, they believed the small statures of Asian people could not handle the job but hired them anyway since they were cheap labor.…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hello I am John Grigore. I live in Norfolk, Virginia with my african and irish family. My wife's name is jonna and we are happily married with our two twins named john and john. My family first moved to America in 1623, after the famine and after slaves came to america. My family was originally from Ireland and they moved to America to seek the riches of the new world.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I can truly remember a lot of school events and encounters that assisted and helped me to achieve and or what helped me to develop my education goals and what helped produce who I am today as a person. The teachers attitude towards me and the materials presented. Also the love that the teachers showed in making sure that I understood and applied the material that I supposed to gain are elements that influence my education and my life today. The superlative significance lesson that I learned is to never give up on a student and my children and for me to do all that I know and can do for my students and children. Our textbook states that “ Clearly, the types of nonparental experiences that children have with other adults influence not only…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Restitution African American people have been through a lot and it shows throughout past. I don’t think a majority of the 21st century African Americans believe that we need a reparations or restitution for our beloved ancestors and I don’t think that most of them that this situation has been introduced many times. We study our history every year we especially learn it from our books. Generation after Generation after Generation will know their past too. The many years of free labor that was giving, because of the disgusting maltreatment from crossing the ocean to living in cotton fields in this ridiculous journey because of the color our skin and because of greed for money and power.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are a variety of strong feelings that accompany the word “slavery”, whether it be feelings of anger, reflection, or acceptance of what has happened in the past. Historians have reviewed many sources, some from former slaves, slave masters, northerners etc. Yet there is still no picture painted clearly enough to give us a perfect view of the past. However, there are still various stories of how slavery was for all parties involved, all of which could be used to prove the institution of slavery was one of bloodshed, pain, and defiance. Former president Andrew Jackson is a prime example of a proud slave owner.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine being born into a world of hopelessness. No dreams of becoming greater tomorrow. Waking up in the same routine everyday asking yourself is this how life really is supposed to be? I couldn 't fathom being without the capability of aspiring to become great and achieving the knowledge that I 'm capable of. I would be hopeless.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Growing up slavery was simple, it was blacks only, or at least that’s how it was pictured and taught in American schools. For the most part, that is true, but only to a certain extent, leaving out vital occurrences that are monumental in today’s society. What if the perception you have on slavery or what you thought you knew about it, was in fact only half of what took place? In “The Hidden Origins of Slavery,” by Ronald Takaki, shows us the ‘forgotten’ side of slavery in the 1600’s. He does this by exposing the truth behind slavery, explaining to us the similarities both black and white slaves encountered.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Between 1881 and 1914, the European powers invaded, divided, and occupied the continent of Africa during what is now known as, The Scramble for Africa. In doing so, they disrupted the lives of African people and permanently altered the physical and cultural landscape of Africa. In Basil Davidson’s, “The Magnificent African Cake,” he chronicles the beginning of colonialism in Africa, the impact of European rule on the continent, and the ideologies that justified the exploitation of the African continent and African people. Accordingly, the Europeans justified their exploitation of Africa, her inhabitants and her resources because the Europeans classified African people and their way of life as inferior to the western world.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The knowledge that I obtained from the documentary “Africa a History Denied”, did not surprise me in any way. I learned in this documentary that white people dated long before slavery had manipulate and altered Africans history. The white people try to make it look as though they were the first to civilize Africa. The culture of Africa has even been said to not have existence. The left over ruins has not even been credit to the African.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Slavery would then take over those of indentured servants and made it possible for the freedom of all white people while blacks would be the slaves. Africans became slaves first in their own continent and then brought to North and South America. People always say that Africans would enslave and sell themselves, now yes technically that is true but Africans had a wide variety of tribes, cultures, religions, languages, and ways of life. These African slave owners would trade their slaves to European sailors for a variety of things ranging from food to guns and ammo so that they may go and capture more slaves to trade to other Europeans continuing the cycle. These slaves had no idea who, why, or where these white men were taking them only knowing that they would more than likely never return to their land ever again.…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Negative Effects Of Imperialism In Africa

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited

    Firstly, Europeans uprooted spiritual and traditional values of the African people. The spread of Christianity had many negative influences. Missionaries had shown themselves intolerant and ignorant of traditional religious beliefs and social practices of African people.10 They were often horrified by the common practice of Polygamy. In the 1860s, white teachers in Africa warned villagers about their “lax” sexual ways and sinful tendencies. In addition, European imperial powers prompted different naming cultures.…

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There once was a boy that was born on a plantation in Alabama in 1852 into a slave family. Slavery was stronger than ever in the south with all the money plantation owners were making off the labor of enslaved African Americans. The little boy’s master sent him to work on the cotton fields at the young age of six, and he had to work to sunrise to sunset under the supervision of slave masters. The slave masters were cruel to the slaves, and they would enjoy humiliating and beating the slaves. One day the plantation owner invited his slaves to have thanksgiving dinner with his family, and the boy saw a book in the plantation owner’s house.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Way Life Teaches: Innocence to Experience Growing up I have come across various individuals, experiences and situations that will forever hold significance for me. These individuals, experiences and situations are/have been my playing field. Professor Camelot defines playing field as “Our playing field is the situation we are born into and how it affects us. It is the tools we have to work with in our lives or what we have available to us and the specific consequences this has on us” (3).…

    • 1107 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Identity is one of the most important concepts that humans have; it allows us to understand who we are, who we have been and who we will be. An individual’s sense of identity is based on their cultural identity as it links a person to their heritage which helps them identify with others who share the same traditions, practices and beliefs that they do. Once a person is robbed of their traditional beliefs, heritage and other aspects of their native culture- they begin to lose a sense of self and ultimately their personal and cultural identity will start to fade as there is no connection to what was once important in their lives. This situation is in fact true for African-Americans, as in the past, majority of their ancestors were forced from…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays