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Comparing Vampires In Beloved And Harriet Jacob's Incidents

799 Words4 Pages

Vampires have been seen throughout history as bloodsucking, evil monsters who come out at night to prey upon the innocent by piercing their flesh with their fangs. While this is true, there are more than just this type of literal vampires in literature. In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, he describes vampires as any older figure that represents corrupt values who violates young women and leaves them helpless followers in his sin. Although characters in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl did not suck anyone’s blood or run away at a glimpse of sunlight, they are still vampires. Slave owners in these novels are vampires as they exploit young women and strip them of their …show more content…

In Jacob’s novel, Dr. Flint, the protagonist’s master, constantly sexually exploits Linda Brent throughout their time together. There are numerous occasions in which Dr. Flint offers Linda safety, protection, and housing in exchange for sexual favors. At one point in the novel, he intends to build Linda a house four miles away from town where she can live as his sex slave. In response to his proposition, Linda thinks, “I’d have rather live and die in jail, than drag on, from day to day, through such a living death” (Jacobs 38). Constant exploitation of slaves is also seen through Schoolteacher, the slave owner in Morrison’s Beloved. Although it is not sexual exploitation, Schoolteacher constantly exploits Sethe, the novel’s protagonist, through her work. He takes his mistreatment of Sethe to the extreme when he takes measurements of her and studies her biology to configure the extent of which she can work. While Schoolteacher is not sexually exploiting Sethe as Dr. Flint does to Linda, he is severely oppressing Sethe by treating her as though she is an animal and pushing her to the extreme limits in work just to better his plantation. In both cases, the men have no concern for the well-being of the women and completely misuse and objectify them for their own personal gain. This is the reason why the authors portray these men as vampires. By giving them vampire like characteristics, the

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Analysis Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

408 Words | 2 Pages

The extreme cruelty experienced by the victims of the South’s “peculiar institution” in Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, reflect the inhumanity of the time period’s slave owners and the impact they had on their slaves both physically and mentally. Harriet’s transfer to the Flint’s household offers several examples of the malice the owners hold in quick succession. The Flint’s have their own ways of treating the cooks, both callous. Mrs. Flint spits into the pots and pans, rendering any food left within them .

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845. A few years later, in 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Jacobs, was published. Similarly, the two narratives are written in the first person, illustrating the author’s personal experience in slavery and their successful battle for freedom. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have one very important element in common: knowledge. Their education and the awareness of their situation certainly helped them in escaping, and was a key element in successfully gaining freedom.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

It’s globally known that the relationship between slaves and owners were abusive and unbalanced. Both male and female slaves endured horrible conditions and punishments brought on by their masters, but a woman’s slave-experience proves to be very different than a man’s. While women had to experience the abuse that came with their race, they also had to experience the oppression that came along with their gender. Regardless of viewing and treating them as animals, many male slave owners still had a sexual attraction and sense of protection over the female slave- sometimes even developing feelings for them. This creates a dangerous situation where not only the men have control over how the women work, but they have control over their body and emotions.

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Comparing Seward And Homosexuality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

265 Words | 2 Pages

According to Roth, however, the true nature of the novel lies in the identification with Dracula and “a fantasy of matricide underlying the more obvious parricidal wishes” (Roth 415). To begin, Jonathan, Van Helsing, Seward and Holmwood are all incredibly attracted to the female vampires, and they want to express their sexuality as Dracula can. Clearly, the problem appears when the Count is simply a projection of their repressed desires. This should be clear, as the Van Helsing group seem to take pleasure in all their sexually fulfilling and righteous. Seward even contemplates killing Lucy with savage delight (Stoker 188).

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Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

2871 Words | 12 Pages

Living in the Flint’s home, Linda and William are experiencing intense abuse and harrassment. Linda especially is being continuously harassed by Dr. Flint, and Mrs. Flint becomes very jealous and aggressive. Linda describes her as lazy when running her home, but energetic when whipping her slaves. Rather than find sympathy for their enslaved, many plantation mistresses would turn against them for “seducing” their husbands. Linda tells the story of an enslaved mother giving birth to her master’s child with extreme complications, while her mistress stands above her jeering that she deserves to die.

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Dr. Jacobs Ethos Of A Fallen Woman

680 Words | 3 Pages

Analogous in form to the spiritual autobiography, the slave narrative emphasizes the difficulty of upholding moral goodness under the weight of slavery. By revealing herself as a “fallen woman” Jacobs creates a hazardous problem, capable of eliminating the sympathies of a primarily white audience. Moreover, Jacobs risks portraying herself as an impure woman, whose virtuousness departs from the piousness and gracefulness typically exemplified by the ideal woman or “angel in the house,” according to the “Cult of True Womanhood.” Therefore, in an effort to preserve the ethos of her argument, Jacobs attributes her unchaste condition to the systemic effects of American slavery. Hoping to destroy the ideology of benign paternalism, Jacobs reveals her consequential ethical dilemma through a faint description of her master’s, Dr. Flint’s, licentious behavior.

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Who Is Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

912 Words | 4 Pages

When Harriet turns fourteen, she mentions how Dr. Flint acts to her: “He peopled my young mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof with him- where I saw a many forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature” (30). Harriet divulges that Dr. Flint not only has no respect for his wedding vows, but is also sexually abusing a girl forty years younger than him, who can do nothing to defend herself because she is his property.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

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1350 Words | 6 Pages

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1495 Words | 6 Pages

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Bram Stoker's Place In Dracula

1143 Words | 5 Pages

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858 Words | 4 Pages

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332 Words | 2 Pages

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1970 Words | 8 Pages

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

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