The Self Vs. Others

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Recommended: Racism in literature

Henri Frederic Amiel who was a professor of Moral philosophy in Geneva said: “There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self”. American culture has been a significant influence for American literature since it not only has served writers to convey the lives of Americans ancestors, but also to express their thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, American literature shows the “self” with the power exerted by many European Americans against African slaves who were seemed as the others. The power of European Americans over the color population forms part of American’s heritage of discrimination against them, and it is reflected in American literature.
The “Narrative of The Life” by Olaudah Equiano, narrated the power that European Americans exert against people of color. The author has not only presented his story to the reader so people could learn the reality about slavery, but he also showed how American literature was influenced by factual events that happened throughout the years since the time of slavery until now. Equiano told the audience how he was almost put to death by a white man: I was with some negroes in their master’s yard, in the town of Savannah…Doctor Perkins, who was a very severe and cruel man, came in drunk; and not liking to see any strange negroes in his yard, him and a ruffian…struck me with the first weapons they could get hold of…they mangled me in a shameful manner, leaving near dead (717). Equiano wants the reader to see how European men used their power to mistreat slaves by treating them worse than animals. However, the narrator described at the end of the story, how Equiano was able to buy his freedom and finally found himself in power to choose his own destiny to become the “self”.
“Narra...

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...n Americans treatment towards them, when he made color people seem grotesque and used expressions that made them appear as objects that were incapable of thinking.
Much of American Literature reflects the endless imagine supremacy of the Europeans against African American people as it tries to frame history. It not only shows the struggle of the colored population to survive as the minority in a world where they did not have any rights, and their lives were in despair without any authority that would prevent such atrocities but also gives a way to look into Europeans American mentality through Thomas Jefferson writing . Through American literature readers can also appreciate how European Americans have lost some of their oppressive power against the minority class, and African American people finally were able to become enfranchised and achieve equality in society.

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