Essay Example on The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano in his story is kidnapped from his home in African and thrown into a life that he was not expecting He is a slave for a total of ten years and tries to take on certain traits and customs of the people he is surrounded by He tries hard to improve himself and learn Christianity and adopt western culture However Equiano still tries to hold on to a some of his African heritage In the narrative he tries to keep the African part of him pure and innocent He does this because he finds that European culture often lacks those qualities This does leave him conflicted in the end between his native African self and his adapted English self Olaudah Equiano adopts Western habits while saving several of his African values This makes him a man mixed with two cultures but not necessarily belonging to either During Equiano s long journey to many different countries he learned of western culture and customs Even though at first when he was enslaved he was frightened of the Europeans he begins to see them as people he admired and were truly smarter beings So he starts to learn and practice their culture He starts to educate himself and learn their language and learns to read a write in the process He also eventually learns about 

Christianity and is baptized while in England As Equiano envelops himself in western culture you can see his opinions change a bit and his understanding of humanity change Equiano's opinion and views vary quite a bit at this point in his narrative to the beginning when he was first abducted While learning of the west he also learns how to make money which later on eventually he earns enough money to buy his freedom Even though Equiano strives to become European he still holds onto his African heritage Many times the whites treat him and others around him terribly affecting him greatly and his view of normality When he first taken to England Equiano witnesses a white man being flogged mercilessly This is the first time he had ever seen something so cruel and as a child it frightens him and because it conflicts with his original African idles Later on when he is older and witnesses more cruelty towards others even worse Equiano states himself that he was shocked at this behavior and how dissimilar it was from the practices of his African home At this point in the narrative he starts to talk about how unfair and unjust the slave trade business is He talks about how they should require at least 20 000 people to be born every year to make up for all the people that are killed or die Throughout the entire narrative the author is very honest and pure in his intentions and retains his African purity of intent Even though Equiano keeps witnessing all these horrible things he still is shocked every time someone is dishonest or cruel to others He fined that Europeans are often dishonest and untrustworthy One of Equiano s masters Lieutenant Pascal told his slaves that they were going to be paid off