The Book Of Negroes is a riveting story focused on a young, African girl who is ripped from the life she knows, and goes through many different experiences which overall affect her, and the readers. Along with the Feminist Criticism Theory, I believe that the Reader Response Theory could also be applied to this novel. Reader response is how I am impacted or interact with the story, because of how I interpret it. I think this applies to the story well, because I believe it is really important to the author to give a realistic feel that allows readers to understand and hopefully have a connection with the characters, or with the storyline.
This novel is such a great story, the adventure never ends, and though many things that happened during this time are difficult to comprehend, its definitely easy to relate with the main character. Aminata is an intelligent, caring, sassy, brave girl, among the many words that describe her. I can relate with the way she acts towards people. She speaks her mind, and doesn't care who hears it, and to an extent, I also do this. She likes people to know what she is feeling, and has difficulty finding a filter, which in many cases has benefited her. Aminata has so much sympathy for people, she cares so deeply for her friends that she cannot stand to see them down. This I can connect with. I am like this with only my closest friends, because they’re moods generally have an affect on mine, so like Aminata, if they're sad, I’m sad. She has an incredible amount of drive and determination, its amazing! She goes through so much throughout this story, she witnesses deaths of her loved ones, she has her child taken from her and sold while she slept, she has been a victim to so much loss. This is what is so amazing about her, she can take these situations and use them to keep her going, to keep her set on finding her way back home, and to the arms of her child, and Chekura. I can connect with her on a much lower level, as I personally have never been exposed to anything such as she.
Seeing movies such as The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, The Help, or even Hairspray gives me a glimpse of what it was like when equality was not something that society saw of importance. This book is just a different story, in an earlier time, showing the same idea. Having an initial idea of how these individuals were treated because of discriminatory reasons, helps me connect deeper to the story and to the way the characters in the novel were treated. In this day in age, few people can look at stories, and the history of these times and say that there was nothing wrong with the way these people were treated. It is very apparent in the novel that these slaves saw the world equally. Though they were threatened by their owners, they still did not view them, or treat them with the disrespect that they received.
Having initial knowledge allows me to connect with characters like Aminata even further. All these other stories I have learned about gives me and even bigger picture of the way Aminata lived and how she felt. It truly is a disgrace to the human race, in my opinion. But reading this book, hearing this story, also makes me realize how far we have come from that place. There will always be issues of racism. Especially now with all these issues of white police officers against African American individuals, it is always going to be a headline on our news channels, or on our newspapers. But considering where we were as a society 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago, I think things have changed for the best. This makes me feel optimistic when reading this book, because though these characters, and millions of other individuals had to go through this, the realization has hit. Equality is of utmost importance. Nothing like this will happen to any individual at the hands of North America, European, or for the most part, any country in the world, again.
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