In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present. On page seventy-eight, Equiano uses first person pronouns like 'I', 'my', and 'me' to separate himself from the other African people and whites around him. This separation that Equiano creates demonstrates his exceptionalism as an African slave. For Equiano to be able to make the readers see the reversal of perceptions about white people, Equiano needs to separate himself and produce this sense of exceptionalism through first person pronouns. Once he establishes himself …show more content…
Through asking rhetorical questions about what "brings down God's judgment" (78), Equiano proves the whites are hypocritical in their actions since the whites preach one concept, but practice another. Equiano uses these rhetorical questions to show the white's backwardness and hypocritical tendencies, but also to show how slavery and inequality exists in his time. Equiano asks "what is life to a man thus oppressed" (78) to obtain the reader's attention and make the reader understand the life of a slave; by using this emotional rhetorical question, Equiano shows the necessity of ending slavery that is forced upon these people because of the white people's hypocrisy in the customs they