Gender Imagery In 'The History Of Mary Prince'

Mary Prince’s memoir divulges many of the brutalities of slavery and colonization in the West Indies; consequently, dispelling the perception of the Caribbean as a modern paradise. In the biography, the social environment reveals the perversity of the colonial system where rampant egregious exploitation of not only slaves, but European women, is routine while the natural elements appear to work in conjunction to increase the suffering of the abused. The heat of the tropical climate exacerbates the hardship of the strenuous labor done in the fields. The blue sea fuels the salt industry, which results in arthritic pain, sores and unimaginable exhaustion. While the white sandy beaches infiltrate these sores to worsen the agony and torment. Thus, …show more content…
Conversely, the bull is often characterized by violence, rage, death, capitalistic greed, and sometimes demonism. The History of Mary Prince makes the same gender distinction with the women and slaves personifying the benign heifer. While the institution of slavery, and the avaricious capitalist men who perpetuate the institution are signified by the bull. In using this distinctive gender imagery, Mary Prince depicts a victim-aggressor archetype that reveals the evils of the patriarchal Eurocentric colonial structure that stands stark against the good Christian model and therefore, leaves little doubt to the nefarious nature of colonization and slavery. Prince introduces the cattle imagery with the auction of Mary and her family who were sold “like…cattle” (Prince 4). When it is her turn to be sold, the buyers surround Mary, paw her “as a butcher would a calf” (4), and comment on her physical attributes. It is important to note that all of the slaves described in this transaction are female. Mary, her mother, and two sisters are the merchandise and all the buyers are “strange men” (4). So, from the very beginning, a gender distinction is established. Moreover, Prince describes herself