Author: ebortz

A key theme that Ginsberg writes about in his poem, Howl, is the use of drugs and the way it destroyed the best minds of his generation. Ginsberg uses vivid words and a lot of disconnected thoughts to illustrate how intense the drug use was during this time period. The poem holds the reader’s attention with bizarre descriptions and these can be interpreted in multiple ways. For example Ginsberg writes that “who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night” (Ginsberg, Howl Section I). There are numerous references to drugs in this line such as “eating fire” or “drinking turpentine”. He is saying that they are obviously putting unhealthy toxic things in their bodies. Ginsberg, in Howl continues to discuss drug use when he writes “Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefront boroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusks of Brooklyn, ashcan rantings and kind light of mind.” Peyote is a hallucinate drug and the writer is saying they have been high anywhere you could imagine: in cemeteries, on rooftops, in front of stores, and in Brooklyn.

Howl describes drug addicts and drug addiction using a lot of imagery in his writing. For example, he writes “suffering Eastern sweats and Tangerian bone-grindings and migraines of China under junk-withdrawal in Newark’s bleak furnished room” (Ginsberg, Howl, Section I). The reader can envision a drug addict having withdraws: sweating, bones hurting and head hurting. The imagery that Ginsberg uses in his choice of words and phrases creates mental images for the reader. For example, the reader can visualize and feel loneliness, desperation and struggle when he writes, “who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night” (Ginsberg, Howl, Section I).

Eric Bortz

Professor Sievers

CULF 1318

8 March 2016

Equiano, Interesting Narrative – Chapter 2

            Slavery is one of the most horrific events in our world’s history. How one person can think they are superior to another and treat another with such acts of violence is hard to comprehend. Thousands of Africans were sold and traded during the eighteenth century. Olaudah Equiano became one of the children kidnapped and sold as a slave. Olaudah Equiano vividly portrays the conditions, mistreatment, and brutality that slaves endured through his ability to use details, imagery, emotion and strong language.

Equiano was born in 1745 in Eboe, which is now Nigeria. When he was eleven he and his sister were kidnapped and sold to slave traders. Children were taught from a very young age to defend themselves because they were left alone when the adults would go to the fields and work. “I was trained up from my earliest years in the art of war” (Equiano 750). The training that Equiano and his sister had prepared for did not help them when they were seized and tied up and gagged. The kidnappers had no concern that these were children being ripped from their families. There was no thought given to the implications of such violence. “It was in vain that we besought them not to part us; she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described” (Equiano 751). Equiano uses a first person perspective and through this perspective the reader can comprehend his feelings. His emotions are so real when describing the pain he felt when he sister was taken away. They were both such a young age and did not only lose their parents but now also each other. The deliberate mistreatment of humans, specifically children, is horrific.

Equiano was soon sold again and felt that it was a miracle when he and his sister were reunited. His joy is felt when he describes their reunion, “I was quite overpowered: neither of us could speak; but, for a considerable time, clung to each other in mutual embraces, unable to do ant thing but weep” (Equiano 753). The choice of words that Equiano uses to describe their reunion are vivid and personal. This joyous situation was short-lived and there was yet another savage separation. His anxiety about losing his sister again is evident when he writes, “ To that Heaven which protects the weak from the strong, I commit the care of your innocence and virtues” (Equiano 753). The violence of rape and beatings were some of the horrors that the female slaves endured. Equiano gives many details in his writings and in his writing tone that pulls the reader into the story. One can imagine through his tone the pain of a sibling being taken again from you and the worry of knowing the harm your sibling was facing.

Slave trading happened daily during the time that Equiano was a slave. The concept of slavery was a part of the culture during this time in Africa. Through horrible justification, slave trading became a primary part of the economy, regardless of the mistreatment of humans. “ The number transported is estimated to be between 12 and 20 million. Africans, of course resisted kidnappings and fought back against those who wanted to capture them in wars. But without guns they had little hope” (Sherwood). Equiano had been living with a widow and her son and was treated so well he almost forgot that he was a slave. The next day he was kidnapped yet again and began one of the worst journeys of his life. “Thus, at the very moment I dreamed of the greatest happiness, I found myself most miserable; and it seemed as if fortune wished to give me this taste of joy only to render the reverse more poignant” (Equiano 754). Equiano chooses certain words here to describe his happiness and these words contribute to the reader’s understanding of his hardship.

When Equiano first sees the slave ship that he is going to board he is filled with terrible fear, “I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and they were going to kill me” (Equiano 755). He has previously written about the contrast between slaves and whites. He vividly writes about his superstitions and the reality of evil. “The Atlantic slave trade continued for approximately 400 years. In the 1750’s, when Equiano would have been taken aboard the slave ship, 50,000 people were being transported each year from West Africa to the Americas” (Layson). The conditions for slaves on these transport ships were horrendous. No one cared if the slaves lived or died. “ I became so sick that and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me” (Equiano 756). Equiano uses a simple everyday occurrence such as eating to pull the reader into the story. He is wishing for death over the conditions that he is exposed to especially when he is flogged. “One of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think the windless, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely” (Equiano 756). His use of detail and imagery provides details and his horrific tone shows the brutality of his experience.

He describes in detail being under the deck of the boat, “This produced copious perspirations, so that the air became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died” (Equiano 757). Equiano uses certain words in this passage such as “loathsome” because it reinforces and contributes to the horrible tone. The Slave Trade article describes the journey, “ The journey was one of the most horrific aspects of the morally deplorable system of slavery. One cannot, of course, mention the Middle Passage without eliciting the horrors of tightly packed men, women and children chained together, to keep them from rebelling, or from choosing the suicidal fate of jumping overboard” (Kendler). The description of this slave journey further illustrates suffering and despair.

As Equiano’s slave voyage is ending, he is unsure of what lies ahead. At first he thought that he was going to be eaten and then discovers he will be sold to work. He reflects on his cruelties, “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you – Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” (Equiano 759). Equiano was torn from his homeland and his family. His imagery and emotions in his writings show his despair and his brutal circumstances. “Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery (Equiano 759). His accounts and others who campaigned against the inconceivable acts of slavery helped to eventually abolish the slave trade.

 

Works Cited

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. London. 1789.

Kendler, Adam. “The Slave Trade.” Slave Resistance: (2000), pages 1-2.

Scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/slave_trade/individual_essays/adam.html.

Layson, Hana.”Olaudah Equiano and the Eighteenth-Century Debate over Africa and the    Slave Trade.” The Newberry:Digital Collections for the Classroom: (2007),pages 1-2.         dcc.newberry.org/collections/olaudah-equiano.

Sherwood, Marika. “Britain, Slavery and the Trade in Enslaved Africans.” (2007), pages 1-3.             www.history.ac.uk/lhr/Focus/Slavery/articles/sherwood.html.

Zitkala-Sa, in “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, writes about the journey and challenges of the Native American and shares her experience of being educated in American schools. In her section, The Cutting of My Long Hair, Zitkala recalls one of the most significant events in her childhood. The children in the school were required to have short hair and this was a total humiliation for her. “Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy” (Zitkala-Sa, The School Days of an Indian Girl,187). This is significant because it illustrates the cultural differences and misunderstandings. The writer makes her point very clear in showing the pain she felt while her hair was being cut. She chooses descriptive language and evokes sympathy when she says that she lost her spirit that day.

In another section, Iron Routine, Zitkala writes about her loss of freedom. She makes the distinction that being an Indian means having self-determination and being strong. She is constantly frustrated in the schoolhouse with the constant bells, whistles, and roll calls. For example, she writes, “Within a week I was actively testing the chains which tightly bound my individuality like a mummy for burial” (Zitkala-Sa, The School Days of an Indian Girl, 189). Her narrative shows her despair and grief with her use of metaphors. She conveys her personal story in vivid detail and strong language.

Thoreau, in “Civil Disobedience,” paragraph 18, uses metaphors to describe the government as a destructive machine, when he writes, “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go”. Thoreau is expressing his beliefs that if a government passes unjust laws then sometimes it is best to break the law. He feels that the law can be wrong and the challenge is how to act against a law if you feel it is morally wrong. In other words, when your morals oppose the actions of the government and your conscience tells you the laws are wrong then you should not agree to the law. Thoreau believes that individuals and not governments decide moral issues. It is interesting that Thoreau uses the metaphor of a machine to describe the government. I believe he does this effectively because most people would have experience using a machine and could visualize the “friction” and “wear” of a machine and how one part could cause the entire machine to break down. He uses strong and direct words and the reader can easily visualize the parts of a machine that keep it running smoothly. Thoreau was opposed to slavery and the Mexican War and he could not support a government that he did not believe in. He felt that every man should think for himself and push against the harmful “machine”. He writes, “…I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn” (Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, paragraph 18).

In a discussion between Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, the text shows how Mrs. Shelby never felt that slavery was right and how she fought against it. “This is God’s curse on slavery! – A bitter, bitter, most accursed thing! – a curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil. It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours, – I always felt it was, – I always thought so when I was a girl, – I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over, – I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom – fool that I was!” (Stowe, Chapter V). This discussion is about selling Tom and Harry and separating them from Eliza. In this passage, the ability to communicate Mrs. Shelby’s pain, regret, and believed sinfulness comes through in the personal and passionate words that Stowe uses. The reader can understand the sorrow and feel the struggle is this dialogue. The vocabulary is so simple and is in a tone that shows the grief and heartlessness of selling people and destroying families.

Stowe shows the anguish and mourning of families being torn apart in acts that are unimaginable. “ At midnight, Tom waked, with a sudden start. Something black passed quickly by him to the side of the boat, and he heard a splash in the water. No one else saw or heard anything. He raised his head, – the woman’s place was vacant” (Stowe, Chapter XII). This passage, which is about a 10-½ month old baby being sold away from his mother, would definitely help persuade readers that slave trade is wrong. In this dramatic scene the mother jumps off the boat and takes her own life because of her sorrow. When the trader shows no remorse or responsibility, the reader of the text would be outraged that a slave’s life is so unimportant.

In Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, one quality that an ideal American should exhibit is being a hard worker. This quality surrounds not only the obvious of working long hours and being responsible but also having creativity. Being a hard worker means to have new ideas, new concepts, listen and learn from past mistakes, and have solid judgment. This quality means sacrificing things, being frugal, and saving for the future. In the time period that Franklin was writing, hard work was essential to success and he believed that hard work led to wealth. For example, he writes, “Reading was the only amusement I allow’d myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, of frolicks of any kind” (Franklin, Autobiography, chapter 8). Franklin, in “The Way to Wealth,” again illustrates the importance of hard work when he writes, “Then plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep…. Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow.”

Franklin persuades his audience to adopt his views in a variety of ways. He appeals to readers by using emotions and humor. His writing style reflects himself and the ideals and values of the time. He uses simple language; his sentences are compact and his vocabulary direct. His sincere manner of writing gives instruction to the reader. “A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last” (Franklin, “The Way to Wealth). Franklin knows that hard work was the way to obtain wealth and distinction. Franklin is very persuasive in laying out a plan for success through hard work.

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