ipl-logo

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

910 Words4 Pages

The snake represents corruption and sin within the Bible in the story of Adam and Eve. In the narrative "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs, snakes repeatedly make their appearance. Jacobs uses the symbolism of snakes to represent slavery, her fear of being captured, and losing her freedom. At the same time, these "snakes," or slavery can be related to the symbolism of serpents in the Bible. This equates the institution of slavery with immoralism. Linda’s retaliation against the snake that bites her represents her retaliation against being enslaved. In chapter 18, Linda continues her pursuit to escape. She goes into hiding in the woods when she hears that her pursuers are getting close. In the woods, she hides in a thicket of bushes, where she is bitten by a …show more content…

After being bitten by the snake, Linda writes that she "struck a blow which loosened its hold" (Jacobs, Harriet A., et al. "XVIII. Months of Peril." Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Dover, Mineola, New York ., 2001, p. 83.). This sentence can be interpreted in a different light than her just striking against a literal snake. By running away, Linda is striking a blow against Dr. Flint and the institution of slavery as a whole. She is making a stand for her freedom by escaping the institution that takes it away, loosening its hold on her. When Linda can’t tell whether she’s "killed it [the snake]," this can be interpreted as her uncertainty on whether she will be able to fully escape. Linda says that she "could not see what it was," and "only knew it was something cold and slimy" (Jacobs, Harriet A., et al. "XVIII. Months of Peril." Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Dover, Mineola, New York ., 2001, p. 83.). The fact that Linda can’t see what bit her is very intriguing. It can be interpreted as the invisible forces that still traumatize her and leave her in constant fear. Linda

Show More
Related
576 Words | 3 Pages

She showed it through the eyes of Mr. March. Slaves were often whipped for not following orders. “Strip by strip the lash carved into Grace’s shuddering flesh. Tears were falling by then, heavy drops, joining the leaf dust with blood that ha begun to trickle from the table” (p.39).

Read More
1280 Words | 6 Pages

These inhumane acts of violence were not only present on Flint's property. One of Flint's neighbors, a lady named Mrs. Wade, on whose property was no "cessation of the lash" (Jacobs, 457). A slave described Mrs. Wade's house saying "It is hell in missis's house. ' Pears I can never get out. Day and night I prays to die" (Jacobs, 475).

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

In the same page, he also tells how a woman killed his wife’s cousin in the cruelest way. Afterwards, he talks about the horrible feeling this murder produced throughout the entire community. Douglass also recounts the experience of watching the slaveholder whip his aunt until she was covered in blood and the pleasure the slaveholder seemed to take in it. The graphic description of her abuse makes readers feel the same anger Douglass must have

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

The use of the phrase “lash up” and “blood streamed to the ground” in describing the violence inflicted on Douglass’s cousin creates a vivid

Read More
1301 Words | 6 Pages

Carlos Lopez Mrs. Wilson/ Mr. Velasco AP Language and Composition 08/07/17 “Incidents in the life of a slave girl” Study guide 1)Linda's grandmother shames Dr. Flint by obtaining her freedom when Dr. Flint stated that he would deny her promise of being fre. 2) She states this because the free women have no idea of what the slaves have to go through on a new year compared to the free women.

Read More
608 Words | 3 Pages

“Once more the men tied her up and gagged her. They even struck her. People encouraged them... They struck her several times on the head-blows that might have killed her. Her little boy clung

Read More
445 Words | 2 Pages

Talk about symbolism of snake/serpent The green mamba snake acts as a motif throughout The Poisonwood Bible. Again, as I do view myself as a missionary, I make many allusions to the Bible throughout my autobiography and the green mamba snake is perhaps one of the most important ones. In the Bible, we often interpret the snake or the serpent as the devil or an evil object. In my autobiography, the green mamba snake is a reoccuring motif that symbolizes the serpent in The Genesis that provokes Eve to dispute God’s command of eating the fruits from the knowledge tree.

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

Curious, she followed him. The overseer caught up with them and told her to grab him. When she didn't move he got angry and threw a two pound weight at the slave but missed and hit her in the head causing her skull to push against her brain. This injury caused her to have seizures and

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the reader follows Harriet Jacobs’s first-hand account of her life when she was first enslaved in the South and then living in the North. With the use of this book, the class textbook The American Yawp, and the lecture “The Second Great Awakening”, the means oppressors used to control those enslaved will be explored and explained. Christianity was used in the American South to justify and uphold slavery through the manipulation and withholding of information, alongside the use of hypocrisy in order to gain and keep control over those enslaved. One way of controlling this was through the manipulation of information from the Bible. In Chapter 13 in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Reverend Mr. Pike

Read More
1627 Words | 7 Pages

The water snake is a representative of a dream because of its periscope head preparing for an opportunity to achieve its goal. The heron portrays fate because it takes the water snake by its head to kill it instantly and unexpectedly, like fate crushes dreams. The incident with the heron and the snake foreshadows Lennie’s fate, which is also instant and unexpected. Curley’s wife is like the periscope head, preparing for an opportunity to become an actress, until Lennie started petting her hair and killed her. Lennie’s actions were similar to the actions of the heron and the actions of fate.

Read More
510 Words | 3 Pages

Covey is skilled and methodical in his physical punishment of his slaves, but he is even more skilled at psychological cruelty. Covey crushed Douglass’ intellect and any thought of happiness by making feel that he is under constant surveillance. The slaves call Covey “the snake,” because he snakes through the grass, but also this nickname is a reference to Satan’s appearance in the biblical book of Genesis. Douglass’ fight with Covey is the climax of the book because it marks Douglass’ turning point from demoralized slave to confident and freedom-seeking man. Douglass achieves this transformation by matching and containing Covey’s own violence.

Read More
485 Words | 2 Pages

Most notably, the “glide of snake belly” is an allusion to a notorious green mamba biting and killing Ruth May (5). Her death provides Orleanna with the strength to leave the Congo and is of enough importance to be addressed in the first paragraph. Orleanna then references the destruction of Kilanga in Judges by a “single-file army of ants” (5). This was the climax of the novel and a major turning point for most characters.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Although this large, frightening snake is ultimately feared, and also causes the death of a young character in the novel, its is a symbol of the spirit of the jungle. After Ruth May’s sudden and tragic death, it suggests in the novel that she becomes the trees of the vast jungle watching over everyone. In the final chapter of the story it says “I forgive you, Mother. I shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Kingsolver 543). This quotes gives us reason to believe that it is Ruth May that is narrating this final passage, and that she has become the trees and is now apart of

Read More
1970 Words | 8 Pages

Slaves faced extreme brutality and Morrison focuses on rape and sexual assault as the most terrifying form of abuse. It is because of this abuse that Morrison’s characters are trapped in their pasts, unable to move on from the psychological damages that they have endured. “Morrison revises the conventional slave narrative by insisting on the primacy of sexual assault over other experiences of brutality” (Barnett 420). For telling Mrs. Garner what they had done, she was badly beaten by them, leaving a “chokecherry tree” (16) on her back. But that was not the overriding issue.

Read More

More about Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

Related Topics

Open Document