The Moral Beliefs Of Candide, By Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, the author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was captured in Africa and sold into slavery. Later in life, he purchased his freedom and wrote his autobiography in 1789. Equiano experienced hardships beyond imaging in his years as a slave and oftentimes witnessed extensive cruelty by whites towards Africans. Equiano 's experience of the Atlantic slave trade and middle passage as we understand it today was typical of a regular captive. The Atlantic slave trade, more specifically the experience that Equiano had was horrific. The Atlantic slave trade stands as one of the greatest mistreatments towards other humans to have ever happened, for nearly 400 years this occurred. Equiano 's experience however

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, is a personal autobiography of himself, Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, documenting the hardships of slavery throughout his lifetime. Equiano writes one of the best primary sources from a slave’s perspective and master’s perspective during slavery. Equiano does not hold back on the horrors of what traveling as a slave from West Indies to North America was really like. Olaudah Equiano shares his heart wrenching journey through the brutality of slavery experienced at such young age to him mastering economics and being able to free himself from slavery. Freedom and salvation are reoccurring parallel themes throughout this autobiography. Although Equiano’s story has been questioned

Olaudah Equiano’s “From the Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano” is written with the intent of ending the slave trade and aiding the abolitionists’ movement. His narrative tells his personal story of kidnapping, being sold into slavery and his experience in the middle passage. According to this account Olaudah Equiano grew up in Africa with a large family. He was captured and sold into slavery at age eleven. As an adult he became an opposing voice to slavery. This autobiography was published in Britain, with the help of abolitionists. This gives a purpose to Equiano’s writing and the purpose is shown throughout the text as Equiano tries to expose the evil of the slave trade.

Candide studied under Professor Pangloss, who taught him, we live in the best of all possible worlds. In the beginning, Cunégonde seeks out to have affectionate affairs with Candide. Unfortunately, they were discovered, which caused Candide to be ejected from the castle. This could symbolize the Biblical Fall. Like Eve, Cunégonde comes across the forbidden knowledge of sex and shares it with another person.

Olaudah Equiano had a very unique experience with the slave trade system. He began conveying his experience with how he was captured in his village by two men and a women, who kidnapped him and his sister. Their captors traveled with them for a few days before separating the siblings, and selling Equiano to his first master. He was treated fairly well, even when he ran away for a day and came back, he says his master “having slightly reprimanded me, ordered me to be taken care of, and not ill-treated.” (Equiano 27) Shortly after this engagement, Equiano’s master loses his wife and child and sends Equiano away to be sold again. He even gets to see his sister one last time before, again, they are separated.

Olaudah Equiano was a slave at the age of 11 in the West Indies. He was enslaved to a captain in the Royal Navy and a Quaker merchant. He witnessed slavery in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Atlantic, and the Arctic. Olaudah Equiano paicipated in the movement to abolish the slave trade. He wrote and published his own narrative of his life. The interpretation of his memoir should not be affected by his birthplace. His travels throughout the world makes him a witness to the Slave trade.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was written in 1789 during the Middle Passage (Equiano, 1790). The Middle passage was a harrowing experience that described the terror and hardship of the transatlantic slave trade. The story was written by Olaudah Equiano himself at a time when slaves were being shipped across the Atlantic to work for the whites. They were transported in demeaning and dehumanizing conditions at the bottom of the deck overly crowded with little or no ventilation that prompted suffocation. The economic setting prevalent at that time was one that depended on waterways and water transportation to get goods from coast to coast. Slavery was also a booming business that was beneficial to both the African brokers who drove the natives to the conviction of a better life and opportunities across the Atlantic and stroke deals with their white bosses at almost no cost. It was like giving away their countrymen for free. The whites were accorded a ready market for the slaves whom they endowed for their manpower, resilience and their hard work and tendency to work well even when subjected to the harshest of conditions. The slaves were deported to Europe to offer cheap and affordable labor especially at a time when industrialization was dominating the European market. The writer is clearly from an unexposed background and has been groomed all his life to believe in their inferiority and their powerlessness before the white men, their masters. They

Equiano describes the relatively benevolent conditions of slavery in the small district of the Kingdom of Benin in Africa, where he was born. He was raised in an upper-class family that owned a large number of slaves. Therefore, Equiano was accustomed to the system of slavery. Even though they had their freedom take away from them, he believed that the slaves were treated humanely in Benin, which was entirely different

Life for Equiano was an emotional roller coaster. He was overwhelmed by turmoil and rejoice as he was separated and reunited with his family, anguish from constant voyages from master to master, satisfied regardless of his particular situation with regard to slavery, and most importantly determined to elucidate society as to what life as a slave was like. Equiano’s experience on African soil was filled with pleasantries and hardships while his experiences on American soil was Equiano’s opportunity for religion and education. Slave owners in Africa were far more accustomed to African ways of life in contrast to the slave owners in America, and although his voyage on the middle passage into European territories left him culture shocked and disgusted with European treatment of slaves, eventually he adjusted to European customs and way of life in America.

A number of themes pervade Equiano's narrative. Editor Robert Allison says the text revolves around "freedom and salvation." Adam Potkay in Forum: Teaching Equiano's Interesting Narrative, claims that Equiano's narrative had a number of persuasive modes, modes such as "apologia, allegory, sermon, exhortation..." and [criticism] directed to abolishing the slave trade (604). Power and identity struggles are also important problems Equiano faces. Some of the most telling passages involve Equiano's discussion of his various names. In his Ibo native land, he was named "Olaudah," which signified "one favored, and having a loud voice and well spoken." His name was thus symbolic of his strong anti-slavery voice. His name testified to his extraordinary life and also suggests his relative fortune, or perhaps God's Providence. Luck and grace would play a large role in his life and narrative. Yet in Virginia Equiano was called Jacob and then Michael - he no longer had control over his own identity. The passage

Equiano was born on the year of 1745 in a “charming fruitful vale” (Olaudah, Chap. 1, Par. 2), called Essaka. His father was a Chief and he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps. Slavery was part of Equiano’s culture, as his family owned slaves as well. “Those prisoners which were not sold or redeemed we kept as slaves: but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters; their food, clothing and lodging were nearly the same as theirs, (except that they were not permitted to eat with those who were free-born); and there was scarce any other difference between them, than a superior degree of importance which the head of a family possesses in our state, and that authority which, as such, he exercises over every part of his household. Some of these slaves have even slaves under them as their own property, and for their own use” (Olaudah, Chap. 1, Par.9).

He blindly follows the philosophy of his teacher, Dr. Pangloss, which states that this world is the best of all possible worlds, and that everything that happens is for the best. Many of his travels are forced upon him by banishment, and others are his search for love and justice in the world. While travelling, Candide lusts after Cunégonde, the love of his life, and goes through many adverse events in order to betroth her. In Candide, the positive and negative events are balanced to demonstrate the

Equiano vividly remembers being kidnapped along with his sister by slave traders at the age of eleven. After spending time with multiple different masters in Africa, he was eventually separated from his sister and brought to the coast. He witnessed a slave ship for the first time and was astonished by the cramped, unclean, even inhuman condition in which they were confined on ships. He was mesmerized and frightened, by the strange machinery of the ship, which seemed to be driven by magic. He was primarily terrified that the white men directing the ship were going to eat them, but the others convinced Equiano that they were being brought across the sea. After a long, torturous voyage, they reached Barbados, where Equiano witnessed families being separated. The white people didn’t have any thought of the pain and distress this caused. He was taken to Virginia, where he was

In Olaudah Equiano’s life there were three ways a person became a slave. Either by one 's tribe losing a battle against another, and being forced to serve them, committing a horrendous crime, or being abducted by kidnappers, and purely sold for weaponry or money. Equiano’s journey through his life as a slave, started as just that, by being kidnapped. At a young age Equiano

Candide grew up naïve in the magnificent castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. He focused on the positive aspects of a situation and was blind to personal pain and danger. Candide fell in love with the Baroness’ daughter and was beaten and chased away. Candide was abused as he trained for the military and was then forced into a war, representing the mindset of pessimism. The protagonist, Candide, starting with a childlike and innocent personality, goes through suffering on his adventures and matures over the course of the novel. If he had stayed in the castle where he grew up, Candide would not have learned about extreme pessimism. In the middle of Candide’s adventures, he finds his way to the perfect kingdom of El Dorado, where his belief of blind optimism was restored. Towards the end of the book, Candide finds out his true love Cunegonde is still alive. This event shows Candide is in the middle of believing in blind optimism and in extreme pessimism. He experienced both good and bad aspects of life, which contributed to his maturity. Candide’s adventures in love, war, and experiencing an ideal society not only matured him, but fulfilled him in the extreme philosophies of blind optimism and pessimism.