Paper Topic:

EXPLICATION OF INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF HARRIET JACOBS

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

By Linda Brent

Essay on the book The Classic Slave Narratives edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr

Being born a slave (p .438 ' is no joke . Children born in this setting have long been suffering but have chosen to live with it because of poverty . Like Linda Brent mentioned , her father 's greatest wish is to purchase his children (p . 438 ' and so he works hard to the extent of being a slave to gain back his children , but sadly never succeeded , because

a slave would always be a slave whenever his master wishes to . Even if Linda wants to end her family 's suffering of being a slave , she has no choice but to accept their fortune

Linda also wished to grow up normal like typical children do , but as she aged to six (p .441 she learned that living like a normal kid is beyond reality because she is after all , a slave . However , being a slave ' is rather subjective , depends on how the reader sees it . To what extent can we say a person is already a slave when Linda since the time of her grandmother was somehow treated well by their masters (p 440 ? The term slave ' is rather harsh for me . Maybe a servant would be more appropriate to use in some parts of the narrative . She even mentioned about being happy with her mistress , because of treating her kindly (p . 441 , I don 't see any negative connotation on this statement . They were being treated well and not otherwise as I see it

When her mistress died , she was passed ' to serve her sister 's daughter . For me it was such a great act for someone who passed away but never left her slave ' empty handed . It was just a matter of loyalty to her mistress , and I guess if not with her , she will end up nowhere After all , Linda owes so much to her late mistress , she learned to read and write because of her kind teachings (p .442 . It is just proper and right to return the favor to her kind mistress

Willie , her brother was purchased ' by the same family (p . 444 , as Linda narrated . This was one of the reasons of her sorrow because he is the only treasure she got at the moment but was also being treated as slave . This incident I guess is a feeling of pity and bitterness feeling of pity for his brother who was compelled to serve this family and bitterness for she cannot do anything about the situation but to accept it . Even the authority of their father was overridden by the power of their master , which they have to obey over their father 's command (p . 445

Until their father died , they were not allowed to come and see their father 's remains and were told to tend to the flowers for an evening occasion (p . 446 . Now this was cruel . Their new...

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