Biography And History: Harriet Jacobs The Life Of A Slave Girl :: essays research papers

Biography and History Harriet Jacobs The Life of a Slave GirlTo be a good writer, you must posess a careful equilibrium between detachmentand association, a delicate waltz where you are non so wrapped up in the eventsof a story that it alienates the reader, and yet not so far separated from the subjugate matter that the readers cannot get into it. This is espectially thecase in an autobiographical narrative. In this case, it is very difficult todetach yourself from the main subject matter, that is, yourself. Yet it mustremain a story, and the story at its heart is a reconstruction of facts from thememory of the author. In the case of Harriet Jacobs, it was also important thatshe sort out sure the readers unders alsod slavery from a womans perspective. Thehardships she had to endure not only entailed the work and the punishments, butalso the sexual aspect of being a slave-girl. Her designate is difficult, because inorder for the reader to really understand her position as a woman and a slave,she must make the story extremely personal. If it is too personal, however, thereader looses sight of the bigger picture, and does not relate all thesehardships to the condition of the general female slave. She accomplishes thisin two ways, through her writing sprint, and the writing content.The style that the novel is written varies from a dialogue to a narrative,depending on the subject matter being written about. For example, the dialoguewhere Mrs. Flint confronts Linda (Jocobs) and asks her what has been going onwith her preserve is handled very effectively, because as a conversation betweentwo people, we are able to pick up on the nuances of meaning. Also, it makes thesituation seem to the reader as very exhilarating, because we dont know whatsgoing to happen next. Two paragraphs later, though, the story has turned backinto narrative, because Jacobs is trying to examine the entire situation in herpresent day, as a free woman. She has to be detached from the conve rsation inorder for her to draw any conclusions. The conclusion she draws is that eventhough they are in antithetic circumstances, (Linda is a slave and Mrs. Flint isher mistress), they both have a shared problem as women -- that is, the problemsof infedelity. This general topic cannot be dealt with effectively unless it isdone at a distance, looking back with the experience she has gained.Jacobs does this a lot -- she takes her own present-day experiences and