Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Incidents in the Life of a Slave daughter - Essay ExampleYet, the polemic of the novel often distorts our perception of the heroine, driving the focuses from the multidimensional nature of a really existing human being to her reactions to the conditions of her slave life. It is preferable to analyze Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent) personality with the overhaul of psychology.Lindas childhood was happy and serene till she was six. Born in a family of beautiful and levelheaded mulattoes, she was so fondly shielded that she never dreamed she was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and presumable to be demanded of them at any moment (11-12). The death of her mother was the first blow. Then she learnt she was a slave. Yet, Linda did non realize the entire sense of the word for the following six years. She was taken to the house of her sporting lady, the foster sister of her mother, who treated the misfire well and taught her to read and write, though it was forbi dden by law. Though the mistress tried to replace the girls dead mother, she did not keep her promise to give freedom to the girl and her brother. This was a bitter truth poisoning the girls perception of the mistress. I would give very much to blot out from my memory that one great wrong. As a child, I loved my mistress and, looking back on the happy days I spent with her, I try to conceive with less bitterness of this act of injustice. While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell and for this privilege, which so rarely move to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory (16). These lines convey the inner conflict, which Linda continued experiencing even as a grown-up. On the one hand, she understood that that her mistress behaved like most of whites, that she, Linda, was only a loving of a doll for the woman, who played with her without really caring of her. On the other hand, the mistress was Lindas commutation of the dead mother, and Linda strove for happy recollection s of her childhood,