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Reviews tagging 'Body horror'
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
1 review
mashedpotatoandsaladcream's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.5
(general spoilers ig, i did in fact write this at midnight so if it doesn’t make sense or if it has horrific grammar. you know why xx)
read this book for a univeristy module. this book is an appeal for the abolition of slavery, written towards the end of the 18th century by an african man who was able to buy himself out. and one of the main things that stick out to me (other than the horrific details of slavery that has been often ignored) is how, as an appeal, equiano has had to write it in a way that flatters the reader into seeing him as someone worth listening to whilst also recounting the reality to people who would have conveniently ignored the truth and is left now having to directly face it. the ending to me seems unfinished and this, for me, is sort of the point. by the end of the novel, although he has been freed, he isn’t fully free. throughout your have had to see how he has been betrayed and been taken advantage of (a sort of purposeful naivety at times to kind of emphasise the shock of these betrayals for you have to always see equiano left begging for even just his rightful pay or just not not be sold again by the one he thought would finally free him) , but for me it feels unfinished because there’s no resolution, say the point. at the end he is still having to face the hypocrisy and still having to force his others to pay him his wage, still almost being forced away back into slavery. there is no resolution to the discrimination he faces because slavery is still ongoing at the time of publication , and yes he was able to write to the queen and he was able to get that lump of money he was owed, but he was still having to beg others to see him as a human. he isn’t able to go to africa to become a missionary and spread the scriptures he had found solace and salvation in, and there’s a sort of irony in how he started in africa and being stolen away at 11(?) and in the end he’s no longer able to return despite being free and despite having been born there. it really shows a lot about the ideals at the time when equianos main argument for, if you’re not going to abolish it, giving the enslaved better living conditions (humane conditions, basic requirements) is that it would be economically better for england and the manufacturing world. this book was v difficult to read at points.
read this book for a univeristy module. this book is an appeal for the abolition of slavery, written towards the end of the 18th century by an african man who was able to buy himself out. and one of the main things that stick out to me (other than the horrific details of slavery that has been often ignored) is how, as an appeal, equiano has had to write it in a way that flatters the reader into seeing him as someone worth listening to whilst also recounting the reality to people who would have conveniently ignored the truth and is left now having to directly face it. the ending to me seems unfinished and this, for me, is sort of the point. by the end of the novel, although he has been freed, he isn’t fully free. throughout your have had to see how he has been betrayed and been taken advantage of (a sort of purposeful naivety at times to kind of emphasise the shock of these betrayals for you have to always see equiano left begging for even just his rightful pay or just not not be sold again by the one he thought would finally free him) , but for me it feels unfinished because there’s no resolution, say the point. at the end he is still having to face the hypocrisy and still having to force his others to pay him his wage, still almost being forced away back into slavery. there is no resolution to the discrimination he faces because slavery is still ongoing at the time of publication , and yes he was able to write to the queen and he was able to get that lump of money he was owed, but he was still having to beg others to see him as a human. he isn’t able to go to africa to become a missionary and spread the scriptures he had found solace and salvation in, and there’s a sort of irony in how he started in africa and being stolen away at 11(?) and in the end he’s no longer able to return despite being free and despite having been born there. it really shows a lot about the ideals at the time when equianos main argument for, if you’re not going to abolish it, giving the enslaved better living conditions (humane conditions, basic requirements) is that it would be economically better for england and the manufacturing world. this book was v difficult to read at points.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Racism, Colonisation, Confinement, Racial slurs, Violence, Slavery, and Body horror
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