Thomas Jefferson in 1776, in The Declaration of Independence, argues that “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” F. Scott Fitzgerald through the women characters In The Great Gatsby conveys how the American Dream in the 1920s has been corrupted and taken over by materialism. However in The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) through the pseudo name of Linda Brent, Harriet Jacobs demonstrates how a woman who does not have anything to her name and no sense of identity but, seems to be living a much more moral life and trying to be a much more moral person. Through the concepts outlined in Jefferson’s speech
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Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” Through this emotive language Jacobs conveys how being a slave she does not have the freedom to lead her life the way she wants. The emotional anguish portrays how badly she is treated but also how she is trying to fight for her freedom so that she can lead a normal life like everybody else, which may not mean much to others but it means a lot to her. In The Declaration of Independence Jefferson argues, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it” however, this is not the case here because Linda is a slave she does not have any rights or liberty so Jefferson is contradicting what he is saying as everyone clearly is not equal in America. The idea of equality is further taken away from Linda as “men” referred to in Jefferson’s speech is directed to only men and not women making them feel like pariah in society. Being a slave she does not have any rights in society and also because of her skin colour she is not considered to be an American citizen therefore she has no freedom. Stephanie Li in ‘Motherhood and Resistance’ further illustrates how the narrative “demonstrate[s] the absolute incompatibility between human bondage and the family unit…plac[ing] the mother as the obvious antithesis to slavery. Grounded in an ethos of liberty…she represents a significant counterforce to a deeply patriarchal and male-dominated
Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” Through this emotive language Jacobs conveys how being a slave she does not have the freedom to lead her life the way she wants. The emotional anguish portrays how badly she is treated but also how she is trying to fight for her freedom so that she can lead a normal life like everybody else, which may not mean much to others but it means a lot to her. In The Declaration of Independence Jefferson argues, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it” however, this is not the case here because Linda is a slave she does not have any rights or liberty so Jefferson is contradicting what he is saying as everyone clearly is not equal in America. The idea of equality is further taken away from Linda as “men” referred to in Jefferson’s speech is directed to only men and not women making them feel like pariah in society. Being a slave she does not have any rights in society and also because of her skin colour she is not considered to be an American citizen therefore she has no freedom. Stephanie Li in ‘Motherhood and Resistance’ further illustrates how the narrative “demonstrate[s] the absolute incompatibility between human bondage and the family unit…plac[ing] the mother as the obvious antithesis to slavery. Grounded in an ethos of liberty…she represents a significant counterforce to a deeply patriarchal and male-dominated