Olaudah Equiano Fallacy

In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano skillfully represents the equal capabilities of nobility and intelligence from the African people forced into slavery. While his writing is steeped with a high acumen and earnestness, there is also a lingering sense of withholding that comes forth to the modern reader. Between the time of Equiano 's tribulations and the time he penned his narrative, it was not the belief of the majority of Americans and Europeans that such slavery was wrong or evil--obvious by its long-standing practice. While our society today is much more privy to the certain horrors that occurred during the era of slavery, the people of this time were not so enlightened or understanding. This …show more content…
As he lays out the horrors he suffered during his passage across seas-- stench, sickness, starvation, abuse, deaths--the vision becomes very terrifying and depressing. Today, it is known that these instances are only superficial to the true extent of the horrors on these slave ships, but such matters were far too delicate to publish at the time, and many people would most likely have rejected such a story as a fallacy. Equiano writes, "In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate, hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade." (1230). While it seems like a simple statement, it works on the minds of the readers in a way that is fulfilling to Equiano 's objective. He leaves out the greater hardships, yes, but he lets the reader know that he did, and warns them that they were ultimately worse than they could handle. Much like in a movie when a scene cuts from something scandalizing, the implication is enough to stir the viewer. Equiano employs this same device in his narrative. After telling in detail the more superficial horrors, he delivers an image to the reader that is enough to offset them without turning them away, but they still do not fully understand at this point. Insinuating there is far more instills an uncomfortable nagging within the reader as to what exactly Equiano is leaving …show more content…
What comes forth is a work of cunning that is highly thoughtful in its persuasiveness. As can be seen, he is very systematic in his way of pulling the readers into his narrative. He allows the reader to wade into his heartbreaking story by guiding them with a calm tone, then endears himself by establishing a personal dialect. The usual author to reader relationship is brought to a human to human level. Equiano 's shrewdness in knowing what should be shared and what to leave as implications for the reader to administer their own imagination to. By this discernment he delivers a novel that works accordingly with the sensitivity of the time. He delivers relatable characters to the white readership that establish not only a further way to connect to the story, but also an example of conduct and treatment white people should extend to the black people and slaves. While the story is important to showing the readers how horrible the forced life and trading of slaves is, it is his technique and devices of narrating that deliver this from a story of tribulation to a motivator for