The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

1
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
Equiano

• Sensory and Vivid Details

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Slave Narratives

• Autobiographical accounts by persons who suffered
  the misery of slavery and lived to write about it
• Used by abolitionists to bolster their case
  against the institution of slavery in the years
  before the Civil War
• Employed descriptive details to help the reader
  fully appreciate the horrors of slavery

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Descriptive Details

• Help the reader to imagine and understand
  characters experiences
• Also known as vivid details
• One type of descriptive detail is the sensory
  deatail ones that appeal to the five senses

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Vivid Details

• Focus on the following passages in the text. List
  several vivid details used in the passage and
  then explain why they are effective
• The beating of Equiano (p. 95)
• Equianos account of conditions below deck (p.
  96)
• Selling slaves in the slave merchants yard (p.
  97)
• Find one other use of vivid details in the text
  and explain why it is effective.

5
The beating of Equiano (p. 95)

• Vivid Details
• Laid him across the windlass
• Tied his feet
• Flogged him severely
• Why Effective?
• Clear visual imagery. Allows you to see the
  scene that is presented. Plays on your emotions
  by presenting a gruesome illustration.

6
Equianos account of conditions below deck (p.
96)

• Vivid Details
• Stench off the hold
• Loathsome smells
• Groans of the dying
• Why Effective?
• Description of smells and sounds conveys the
  horror. Plays on our emotions by presenting
  deplorable living conditions.

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Selling slaves in the slave merchants yard (p.
97)

• Vivid Details
• Terrified Africans
• Cries at parting
• Parents losing children, siblings, and partners
• Why Effective?
• Dramatic wording emphasizes the misery. Plays on
  our emotions by presenting the cruelty of
  separating loved ones