(1) As I was reading The Interesting Narrative of the Olaudah Equiano, there are faint similarities to Oroonoko, the main similarities being of slavery, but I also noticed throughout reading the first three chapters that it is much more depressing in a non-violent manner. Olaudah was taken away from his family, demonstrating that no matter how stable a land or a group of people might be, there will always be a flaw in the system. The narration makes it so much more melancholic, too, because Olaudah is naive when it comes to certain relationships, especially with his slave owner, because of his age. He admires him, even though the slave master had brought him for money, and driven more of a wedge between his actual family back in his home country. It reminds me of Stockholm Syndrome. Olaudah was completely separated from his family, disrespected by various numbers of people, having suicidal ideologies at the ripe age of nine years old, yet, he still sees somewhat of some humanity in his master.

(2) There is one particular passage that interested me, and it was in the third chapter. At some point in the novel, Olaudah talks about how he was called Gustavus instead of Jacob, showing signs of disrespect due to entitlement and skin color. After this, he mentions how he had a fear of being eaten by the white people after they had told him so, with him stating “This renewed my consternation; and I did not know what to think of these white people; I very much feared they would kill and eat me” (94). This is not an irrational fear that Oludah has, because although it hasn’t been proven that slave owners had eaten their slaves, there were instances where they have used human hair from slaves to create goods such as cushioning for chairs.

(3) A question that I have is: Why did Olaudah connect with his slave master?