Olaudah Equiano's Slave Narrative

Literature is an effective tool that paints images and evokes emotions in the reader’s mind. It elicits thoughts and feelings using imagery, metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and intense vocabulary. This array tool of writing is a substantial way to convey ideas and share stories. My reading of Equiano’s slave narrative stimulates my mind as well as thoughts and feelings towards the subject of human suffering. It tells the lugubrious story of Olaudah Equiano, a young boy in Africa, who witnesses the cruel fate of slavery. Conversely, he highlights his experiences with his sorrowful narrative about the separation from his loved ones, the families he works for in Africa, the deadly and nauseating journey on a slave ship, and his final destination in London. As I study Equiano’s slave narrative, the emotions of anger, sorrow, and anxiety carve into my mind. …show more content…
The event that transmits this emotion is when Equiano communicates to the reader about his treatment on the slave ship. During the Slave Trade, ships are useful to transport slaves and contains inhumane living conditions. Equiano describes the stench of the stern being so toxic and loathsome that it was dangerous to stay there for a while. Furthermore, Equiano describes how he was flogged for refusing food when he falls ill due to the grief and the nefarious odor of the ship. The notion of human suffering is an inconvenient subject; the thought of miscellaneous people voluntarily and physically dragging someone through brutal hardships is repulsive. It enrages me that humans willingly torture and kill for their own lust and acquisitiveness. It displays how we, as a species, are unnecessarily selfish and cruel to our own kind. As expressed, the events of the slave ship in Equiano’s narrative prompts me to experience