The horror and difficulties of a slave girl depicted another accentuates the everlasting suffering of a slave in desperation. The slave girl is crammed in her tight space and encounters many uncomfortable sights such as the insanitary, dim, and dreary darkness. The continuous repetition, utilized by Jacobs use of imagery only add on to the reality of confinement and the harshness of slavery.
Although they are harsh memories to recall, Harriet Jacobs’ time under Dr. Flint are stories that need to be told to depict the horror of living as a slave. Through Jacobs’ shared, unpleasant experiences, we see the cruelty and injustice of slavery.
Thesis
At a time where being unthankful can be an appropriate response, Jacobs does not fail to mention how grateful she was for her lot in life and the kindness of her helpers.
Thesis
In chapter XXI, Harriet Jacobs uses repetition by saying “I was never…” to show how she was never mistreated like the other slaves were but yet, she wished for freedom when she came into Dr. Flint’s possession, which implicitly shows that something may have happened between the two that would cause this.
Thesis of Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs continually repeated the idea of the confinement and its relation to slavery . Although it may seem like she had experienced terrible conditions, her description helped to portray that those conditions of confinement were more favorable than those of slavery.
Thesis- Harriet Jacobs
Throughout these two chapters, Harriet Jacobs continuously uses imagery to paint a vivid picture for the reader. By doing so, Jacobs is able to have the reader visualize the conditions she was living in in order to escape her life as a slave.
Thesis
Harriet Jacob constantly uses quotation in her piece ““Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. Jacobs does this in order to express how self-aware and reflective the narrator is to the world which she is living in.
Thesis
Harriet Jacobs writes about how the hardships she faced as a slave were nothing as compared her life with Dr. Flint. She began appreciating the little things and how in comparison to sleeping in a tilted small room in almost complete darkness with little air, and having mice and rats run around the room, nothing was worse than living with Dr. Flint.
Slave-Thesis
The author’s choice to only mention what the narrator says in general, while quoting others’ words verbatim, in these chapters serves to connect the reader to the narrator by giving the reader the power to choose the specific words that the narrator would use.
The School Days of an Indian Girl
The story tells the tale of Zitkala-Sa, a young girl excitedly moving away from her village to a boarding school. Her excitement quickly goes away once she finds out the unpleasant realities of her new life, which require her to assimilate into white culture. She has to change her hair, the way she dresses, everything about her. She desperately misses her mother as she suffers loneliness in her new environment. The story presents a new point of view on white culture, one that is unhappy. It reveals the harshness of life for those on the outside, looking in.