attached

The Slave Narrative Tradition

For this written assignment, you are to examine one paragraph/segment from one of the slave narratives we have encountered and discuss how the segment is indicative, THEMATICALLY, of the slave narrative in its entirety. Look to the African American Vernacular tradition for such themes. In other words, how is your chosen segment thematically representative of the slave narrative’s greater tradition as you have come to know and understand it? For example, many would suggest that the concluding segment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby symbolizes Jay Gatsby as the quintessential optimist in that novel. Looking at Frederick Douglass’s Narrative , extrapolate this idea of the microcosm and apply it to your knowledge of the slave narrative tradition, then apply what you see exemplified in that segment to the text at large. How does your chosen segment demonstrate a particular thematic characteristic (these can include bondage, freedom, loss, salvation, etc---please, choose one) common within the slave narrative tradition? Decide what overarching themes are present in your particular narrative, choose one, and suggest how that snippet and your chosen theme are indicative of what we come to expect from such narratives. How does your chosen excerpt exemplify “X” within the narrative? A solid analysis will require you to take apart that segment to demonstrate a greater meaning at work in the text. You are to do NO OUTSIDE RESEARCH for this assignment, relying instead on your own critical skills to divine meaning from the primary text. You are to do a close reading of your chosen text, being sure to go to the text itself for your “proofs” as you make your case. All papers must have a clear thesis and must be well-supported by textual evidence. Make sure to include a title page with your essay; this should include a title, your name, the course/section numbers, and the date.