The following is an analysis of an extract of the
autobiography The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole (1857)
The text
above is an excerpt from the autobiography The Wonderful Adventures of Mary
Seacole. This particular text shows all the elements of a memoir. It is
anecdotal, is told in first person narrative, and has dialogue within the text.
It aims to reminisce on past experiences and the dreadfulness of a deadly
yellow fever plague. The text also serves as a warning aimed at the younger
generation that may have not experienced such a calamity yet. Since it is
written in an engaging manner and uses emotional language, it is easy for most
people to engage with the topic; making the audience quite broad, as there is
no need to be interested in the topic of history or medicine to actively engage
with the text. The audience would be anyone who is willing to read the
autobiography.
In the
text, Seacole talks about the casualties she saw while nursing people at her
home. She writes about her own personal experience and about how she was no
longer affected by the gruesome and morbid scenes that she continuously saw in
her daily life and about the scenes of grief that followed deaths actually made
her suffer. However, she contrasts by talking about the experiences of others,
talking about how different people would react in the face of death; about how
the bravest men would “die trembling like children” while others who have
barely suffered in their lifetimes would “die as heroes.” Through all of this
she addresses the theme of death, which is a common happening in any deadly
plague (such as the yellow fever), giving some examples of how people confront
it and thus aiding the purpose of her warning. She also writes about a
particular man that she had come to love as a son for a short period of time
before he died, thus addressing the themes of motherly love and heavy loss.
Through this anecdote, she is able to write on a much more intimate level with
the audience and portray much stronger feelings of loss.
The text
is written in a gloomy and bleak style, and effectively portrays the grim
aspect of a deadly plague and her experiences with the yellow fever in a
serious and emotional manner, helping her reminisce about her past as well as
warn future generations of these threats. Even though the text has emotional
anecdotes they are always related back to the over-arching theme of death by
the plague, which keeps the atmosphere gloomy throughout the whole text. Right
off the first sentence she uses words that evoke negative emotions (“suffering
and gloom”), thus setting the mood right from the onset. The text, despite giving
the impression of being quite cold because of the way Seacole explains she is
used to seeing death and how it does not affect her much, is written in an
emotional way that allows the tone to be friendly and welcoming and making it
easy to engage with the text.
The text
is written from the first person point of view, and gives the reader a much
closer and engaging look into Seacole’s experience with the plague. Since it is
a memoir, she gives her own perspective of the events, accompanied by the
hindsight wisdom of experience that is characteristic of a memoir. She attempts
to hook the reader by using emotional words and anecdotes that people can
relate to. In the third paragraph she
uses repetition with the word trying and short sentences when she says
“It was trying to see his poor hands trembling…trying to see how piteously the
poor worn heart long to see once more...” which gives the text a quick, natural
pace at that point that can easily engage readers. She also refrains from
directly saying the names of the characters in her memoir in order to protect
their remembrance. The text is structured with an introduction that aims to
give some background information on her situation and the epidemic. Seacole
then writes about the bravery in facing death in the second paragraph, which
allows her to transition to the third and final paragraphs, which discuss her
relationship with a man she nursed. The entire diction of the text reflects the
time in which the text was written in, such as using the word “trying” instead
of “daunting” which is a more commonly used word nowadays, or using the phrase “He
sent for…” which is not quite commonly used anymore either.
No comments:
Post a Comment