Tag Archives: group a

by

The Life of a Slave Girl

In The Life of A Slave Girl, the slave girl lies crammed in her grandmother’s small shed. While the slave girl hides in the shed, she hears and sees the world from a little hole cast away from light, air, space and her loved ones. Not until she finds a gimlet does she have the opportunity to break a bit more loose from the eternal darkness of her surroundings. The slave girls circumstances were too indeed on the side of darkness. Unlike the slave subject to constant work and turmoil in the presence of a malevolent owner, the slave girl has the blessing of having been taken care of fairly well and still having a sort of individual freedom to live in physical comfort. Thus, the slave girls confinement from the outside world implies her fear of Dr. Flint. Near the end of her disappearance from the white world, she describes her tight space as having more freedom then the world that exists outside of it. From the actions of the slave girl, one may conclude that freedom to live as a human being is far more important than existing in a world that is subject to degradation and abuse which is represented by Dr. Flint himself.

 

 

by

Indian Reading

The writing was trying to bring to light the author’s struggles as a Native American going to an American “white man” school.  The story seems to be fairly old, from before the 20th century began.   One thing she mentions a lot is how people stare at her, and how uncomfortable this makes her feel.  On the train both children and adults look at her, and her “mocassin” feet, and this brings her almost to tears.  This is probably the strongest statement of her struggles as a Native American – she is stared at as if she is a novelty, contributing to her feeling of being an outsider.  By bringing it up more than once, it really hammers in the point how such a seemingly small thing badly affected her.