Rashad Stafford
LIT 2010 – 001
1 August 2016
Dr. Natalie King-Predoso
“Working Title” In the autobiography, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus, the African,” Olaudah Equiano tell his chilling story of how he was kidnapped, enslaved and eventually earned his way to becoming a free black man. From the very beginning of the narrative, Equiano struggles with his personal identity and who he really is. The first hint of his struggle of his identity is in the title of his biography stating both his African born name and his slave given name. Because Equiano was taken from his village at the young age of eleven, Equiano - who was later given the name Gustavus Vassa by a slave master - goes through his entire life …show more content…
This name was given to him by his father and signified “vicissitude, or fortunate; also, one favored, and having a loud voice and well spoken.” This was the ultimate description of Olaudah Equiano and his name was very revered within his African tribe even as a young boy. Although his name changes, Olaudah Equiano’s name will always be a part of him and that shows throughout his narrative. In the narrative, when Olaudah Equiano was enslaved, his name was changed to Jacob and Michael by various slave owners. The parallelism between his name change and Olaudah Equiano’s confidence level throughout the novel is one to pay attention to. When born and given the name Olaudah Equiano, he was being built up with building blocks of confidence, self-awareness and meaning. After he was kidnapped and enslaved, just like everything else, this was all taken away from him. He was given names at random with little to no meaning behind them by people who had no idea who he was or where he had come from. Feeling defeated and ultimately afraid, Olaudah Equiano humbly answered to these names without any opposition. It was not until his fourth name change that Olaudah Equiano began to display the traits of his originally given name. Later in his narrative, he is given the name Gustavas Vassa by his slave owner at the time. It was not until Olaudah Equiano learned English and fully understood the …show more content…
It was an Igbo village - what is now known as modern day Nigeria - was the place that Olaudah Equiano called home. The young 11-year-old boy lived a simple life amongst his village people with his family. He discusses his tribe being a very hardworking, self-sufficient and happy one. They were people of dancers, musicians and poets – very skilled in the arts. Very polite, practicing simple manners and lived together as a unit in large huts within the village. They lived amongst a land that was rich and fruitful with many types of fruits, vegetables, corn and cotton. Their religion was simple. There was one creator of all things that lived in the sun, required no food nor water and smoked a pipe, one of the villages luxuries. This was the only way of life that Olaudah Equiano was familiar with. From his birth to the time he was kidnapped and separated from his family and entire village, Olaudah Equiano was being taught the way of his people and took great pride in one day being a leader of the village like his father. It was not until after he was enslaved that he starting having conflicting ideas of who Olaudah Equiano really was. While enslaved, Olaudah Equiano was owned by several people including a vessel captain. This gave Olaudah Equiano the opportunity to sail the seas and visit many places throughout the world including Africa, North America
LIT 2010 – 001
1 August 2016
Dr. Natalie King-Predoso
“Working Title” In the autobiography, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus, the African,” Olaudah Equiano tell his chilling story of how he was kidnapped, enslaved and eventually earned his way to becoming a free black man. From the very beginning of the narrative, Equiano struggles with his personal identity and who he really is. The first hint of his struggle of his identity is in the title of his biography stating both his African born name and his slave given name. Because Equiano was taken from his village at the young age of eleven, Equiano - who was later given the name Gustavus Vassa by a slave master - goes through his entire life …show more content…
This name was given to him by his father and signified “vicissitude, or fortunate; also, one favored, and having a loud voice and well spoken.” This was the ultimate description of Olaudah Equiano and his name was very revered within his African tribe even as a young boy. Although his name changes, Olaudah Equiano’s name will always be a part of him and that shows throughout his narrative. In the narrative, when Olaudah Equiano was enslaved, his name was changed to Jacob and Michael by various slave owners. The parallelism between his name change and Olaudah Equiano’s confidence level throughout the novel is one to pay attention to. When born and given the name Olaudah Equiano, he was being built up with building blocks of confidence, self-awareness and meaning. After he was kidnapped and enslaved, just like everything else, this was all taken away from him. He was given names at random with little to no meaning behind them by people who had no idea who he was or where he had come from. Feeling defeated and ultimately afraid, Olaudah Equiano humbly answered to these names without any opposition. It was not until his fourth name change that Olaudah Equiano began to display the traits of his originally given name. Later in his narrative, he is given the name Gustavas Vassa by his slave owner at the time. It was not until Olaudah Equiano learned English and fully understood the …show more content…
It was an Igbo village - what is now known as modern day Nigeria - was the place that Olaudah Equiano called home. The young 11-year-old boy lived a simple life amongst his village people with his family. He discusses his tribe being a very hardworking, self-sufficient and happy one. They were people of dancers, musicians and poets – very skilled in the arts. Very polite, practicing simple manners and lived together as a unit in large huts within the village. They lived amongst a land that was rich and fruitful with many types of fruits, vegetables, corn and cotton. Their religion was simple. There was one creator of all things that lived in the sun, required no food nor water and smoked a pipe, one of the villages luxuries. This was the only way of life that Olaudah Equiano was familiar with. From his birth to the time he was kidnapped and separated from his family and entire village, Olaudah Equiano was being taught the way of his people and took great pride in one day being a leader of the village like his father. It was not until after he was enslaved that he starting having conflicting ideas of who Olaudah Equiano really was. While enslaved, Olaudah Equiano was owned by several people including a vessel captain. This gave Olaudah Equiano the opportunity to sail the seas and visit many places throughout the world including Africa, North America