Analysis of autobiography of Olaudah Equiano.

This text is a biography written by Olaudah Equiano who was enslaved and who is from Africa. The purpose of this biography is to talk about his life starting from when he was an innocent infant to being enslaved and living in the other part of the world. This biography talks to me a lot for the reason that while reading it, I felt so much empathy for the author that I somehow felt what it means to become enslaved. Equiano is from Guinea, located in West Africa. He comes from the Fulani tribes. Equiano grew up without having to worry about wealth because he never faced any problem related to poverty. In his village, everybody shares what they have and everybody knows each other, it is like a big family. The author throughout his autobiography used a lot of metaphors when talking about slavery to express his words and better his narration. He also used pathos when expressing his feelings through all the text. One example is when he was separated from his sister the first and second time. Equiano described it as the most painful moment of his life, more painful than being enslaved itself. He used a formal language and was very detailed. He used a strong lexicon which I can also connect with “nommo” which is the power of words. One sentence that stood up the most to me is when he says” The white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty” (p. 23). This says a lot when I look at today’s society, colored people have always been looked and considered as brutal and aggressive. After reading this, I understood a lot, I understood that you become what you are because that is the only thing you have ever known. If colored people are “rude” and “Brutal”, it is because they were taught and raised to. To sum up, Olaudah Equiano gave me the chance to return to the past and live every moment of his life, feel every emotion, he and any other enslaved people once felt in their miserable life. He has been and still is a voice to all people that suffered unjustly. He is a messager that traveled from Africa to Europe with his powerful words.