Like The Arabian Desert Stewart Analysis

Maria W. Stewart, an African American educator and writer, lectures on the side effect of servitude on slaves. She states that slavery is a matter that she will die for. Even if slaves are no longer whipped they cannot progress their status socially. The irony of the American dream of freedom excludes all African Americans that are slaves. Maria Stewart backs up her argument on the emotional effect on slaves by using, similes, motifs, and irony. Maria Stewart relates objects and places in nature to living a life as a slave and a freed slave. “Like the scorching sands of Arabia, produces nothing; or like the cultivated soil, brings forth thorns and thistles” (line 41 and 42). People that are in servitude thoughts are no longer tangible and their heart no longer yearns for anything. They are stripped of their dignity by their master. Slaves minds produce nothing substantial because their oppression forbidden them to develop themselves. The simile of the Arabian Desert relates its …show more content…
“If I conceived of there being no possibility of my rising above the condition of a servant, I would gladly hail death as a welcome messenger” (line 5-6). Being a slave is so dreadful that most would choose to die rather than live. She strengthens her argument on how bad the life of a slave by stating, “I am as willing to die by the sword as the pestilence” (line 16). There is nothing worse than slavery, servitude is worse than death. Maria Stewart would rather spend her final day’s sick, than living for years under a master. “Hard labor deadens the energies of the soul” (line 38-39). The intensive labor rips the slaves resolve to do any activity, including living. The motif of death is meant to prove that nothing can be as dire as slavery. Typically death is the worst thing that can ever happen. However, Stewart is stating that death is not the worse, slavery