Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
The novel is written in the context of slavery in America.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrative
Tone and Mood
Sad, hopeless, disturbing, horrifying
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the story is the narrator.
Major Conflict
The conflict is when the narrator and other African people are captured and imprisoned to be shipped to America as slaves. During the travel, the Africans in the ship are mistreated, raped and killed.
Climax
The climax is when the slave called Atiba murders a couple that bought him. Atiba is a trickster, and his actions mark the climax in this book, reminding readers that Africans had the power of revenge. Still, they only accepted humiliation and mistreatment because they were away from home.
Foreshadowing
Slavery in America was foreshadowed by the greediness of the white businessmen and the slave owners who did not value black human life.
Understatement
The mistreatment of the blacks is understated. Besides being compressed and packaged in one room under the deck, the narrator reveals that many blacks were brutally murdered during the trip to America.
Allusions
The story alludes to slavery and human suffering that blacks were subjected to during the days of the slave trade.
Imagery
The imagery of smell is depicted when the narrator describes the room in which the slaves were contained below the deck. According to the narrator, the room was tiny smelly of human suffering. The imagery paints a clear picture for readers to see the narrator and fellow Africans' sufferings while travelling to America to be sold as slaves.
Paradox
The main paradox is that when the ship carrying African slaves arrived in America, it had fewer slaves than when it started. The irony is that many of the slaves were mistreated and murdered during the journey. Therefore, the reader finds it sardonic that slave traders prefer making losses rather than tolerating carrying blacks in their ships.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Slavery is a metonymy that refers to the presentation of black people as material goods in America.
Personification
N/A