American Literature Essays - Olaudah Equiano, Bias, Equiano

American Literature Essays - Olaudah Equiano, Bias, Equiano American Literature 16th of September, 2016. Bias Perspective Motivation comparison. People never make decisions without something on the back of their minds. Any events or accidents from the past can effect person's choices and the way they react to other people and their actions. The bias are usually made from those events, bias don't change very often, if bias change, it change very slow. However it always depends on a person. Characters always have their bias, perspective and motivation, or in other words, why character is doing something. In this essay I will discuss how characters' bias, perspective and motivation were different in these four stories, and how they changed through the stories. Why authors of La Relacion, The Interesting Narrative of Life of Olaudah Equiano, The General History of Virginia and Of Plymouth Plantation wrote and published their stories? The reason why La Relacion was written and published is probably to show people, that native americans weren't always aggressive, yes they are savages, they didn't care about a medical qualification or a diploma, but they saved people anyway. The Interesting Narrative of Life of Olaudah Equiano reminds audience what a horrific barbarism was made. The main reason why author wrote the story, was a desire to show what white people did to his nation. In La Relacion, is trying to prove that native Americans, who were usually called savages, have the bowels of compassion, while people from second stories were real savages, who were just called humans. In both stories writers are trying to prove their audience, that in one case people are conscious and kind, while others are soulless and heartless. You can clearly see the similarity of bias in three stories: Le Relacion, The General History of Virginia and Of Plymouth Plantation. In all these stories, people were going to explore new lands, with a fear of local people, who were expected to be threatening and destructive. The reason why explorers were so terrify, because they never met them before, they didn't exactly know what locals can do to them and what to expect from them. Here we can add the fear of death , which could take anywhere. Cabeza de Vaca was treated with caution towards local people, his bias was changing slowly through the story. When savages saved him and his people, he was still scared of death, because there is a stereotype about cannibalism, savages could kill them for a sacrifice, but instead of it, they gave them food and place to sleep. Also I want to touch on theme of audience's perspective, in The General History of Virginia John Smith describes himself as a great, who always chooses hardest work, with high moral standards, while describing everybody else as a lazybones and "sufferers. However, later audience realizes that John Smith exaggerates his mightiness. He sink in audience estimation, when he killed two men who were trying to escape and go back to England. In the The Interesting Narrative of Life of Olaudah Equiano character's perspective was dreadful, just like in other three stories in the beginning.And now I was persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits and that they were going to kill me (line 5, page 1) He was afraid of white people not only because other people were talking about them in a bad way, but because it was his bias as well, same with other stories, Olaudah Equiano didn't know what might happened to him. Here we can draw a parallel between The Interesting Narrative of Life of Olaudah Equiano and La Relacion, in both stories characters were afraid of something based not on their own experience, but on what other people told them.