Captivity narratives are written in a captive’s perspective after the incident happened. This can lead to the writer feeling sorry and thankful towards the captors for not killing them, also known as Stockholm Syndrome. In the narratives, we can find how terrible and unkind the captors are towards their hostages, even if some have Stockholm Syndrome. Equiano and Erdrich emphasize the importance of the captive’s hardships by characterizing the captors in a negative light and revealing who they really are, horrific and evil.
Equiano stresses how unjustly the crimes committed by the captors are, like separating families from each other, and how the imprisoners use this torture for their own greed and pleasure. From the excerpt of Equiano, he …show more content…
Unlike Equiano, Erdrich seems to have symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, covering up the truth about the captors. In the beginning of the narrative, the speaker exclaims how the captor tried poisoning her with a love potion. The speaker also says how the captor’s did terrible acts, “But he dragged me from the flood by the ends of my hair” (Erdrich). This shows how aggressive and abusive this captor was. Eventually the speaker starts to feel different towards the captor, “One night he killed a deer with a young one in her and gave me to eat of the fawn. It was so tender” (Erdrich). The speaker is now starting to trust the captor, while before she dared not to eat from him, she’d rather starve. This is one example of a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome. This portrays the captor as caring for her by giving her food, when it really is the speaker who is perceiving the situation as the captor simply letting her survive. At another point in the narrative, the speaker says, “The night was thick. He cut the cord that bound me to the tree” (Erdrich). Here the speaker is trying to say that she no longer feels apart of her own community, but apart of the captor’s. From this point on, the speaker now fully trusts the captor, disconnected from the world, and is accepting the captivity. Since the speaker has symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, she is confusing her perspective with the reality of the captor’s
Equiano stresses how unjustly the crimes committed by the captors are, like separating families from each other, and how the imprisoners use this torture for their own greed and pleasure. From the excerpt of Equiano, he …show more content…
Unlike Equiano, Erdrich seems to have symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, covering up the truth about the captors. In the beginning of the narrative, the speaker exclaims how the captor tried poisoning her with a love potion. The speaker also says how the captor’s did terrible acts, “But he dragged me from the flood by the ends of my hair” (Erdrich). This shows how aggressive and abusive this captor was. Eventually the speaker starts to feel different towards the captor, “One night he killed a deer with a young one in her and gave me to eat of the fawn. It was so tender” (Erdrich). The speaker is now starting to trust the captor, while before she dared not to eat from him, she’d rather starve. This is one example of a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome. This portrays the captor as caring for her by giving her food, when it really is the speaker who is perceiving the situation as the captor simply letting her survive. At another point in the narrative, the speaker says, “The night was thick. He cut the cord that bound me to the tree” (Erdrich). Here the speaker is trying to say that she no longer feels apart of her own community, but apart of the captor’s. From this point on, the speaker now fully trusts the captor, disconnected from the world, and is accepting the captivity. Since the speaker has symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, she is confusing her perspective with the reality of the captor’s