Describe how your reading of Equiano's narrative is going. What are you finding interesting, challenging, unexpected, or troubling? How does Equiano's story (so far) compare to what you have learned about slavery in the Atlantic world?
With the winter quarter beginning, I wanted to get on top of my game and start working a bit earlier so I didn't have to stress as much about school work. As such, I began reading Equiano's novel a bit earlier than required so I didn't have to feel pressured about reading and finishing the book at a certain date. From what I've read -- I'm now at the start of chapter eight -- I've had a good time reading the text, however my journey through the book hasn't been the easiest.
In this blog post I'm not going to spoil the future chapters -- I don't want to be lame and ruin the book for others -- as such I plan to discuss what occurs in the first four chapters that are due on Thursday of the first week of class.
When I began reading this book, I believed this text would be much more of a slower pace. The first chapter discussed Equiano's home province and its customs. I thought that the text would surround Equiano's analysis of the land he's in. Equiano does indeed give an analysis of his surroundings in the text, however he does so at a pace much faster than I expected.
The book jumps rather quickly into the abduction of Equiano and his journey as a slave across the world. Within his journey, Equiano isn't in one place for too long and can be traveling to different countries across different years in the span of one chapter. His journey, for me at least, is really fast paced and isn't what I'm accustomed to. I've had to employ new annotation styles to maintain my understanding of the text. For this text, I'm now keeping track of every change in the setting -- both in location and year.
The life of Equiano is a tough one and one I sympathize for. I couldn't imagine having to travel the world all alone, facing hardships wherever one lies, at such a young age. I'm interested to see how this novel ends and see my classmates' opinions about the text in class.
That's great that you started reading Equiano early, and I definitely agree that Equiano's narrative is super fast-paced. It was hard to keep track of things sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to stay on top of Equiano's age as the narrative progressed, but, as you and Kiana both mentioned, it's tough to keep up. I wonder if Equiano also had difficulty keeping track of time and his age during all that movement; I've been impressed with how specific he has been with dates so far.
ReplyDeleteThis is Kate Rickwa by the way :)
DeleteMarc, I respect how you start your work early and admire your time management!
ReplyDeleteThank you for not spoiling the story, I hate it when people do that lol
ReplyDeleteI admire your ability to get ahead, as I started the first reading assignment the morning of. I think it's a great idea to keep track of changes of setting, as it can be a little hard to follow at times.
ReplyDeleteMarc, I SO hope you share your annotation strategy with us all. Would you be willing to show us what it looks like and how it's helping you keep track of where Equiano is and why that might be important?
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