Friday, March 15, 2013
Blog Assignment Number 2
The claim that the Spanish lands in South America believed that the slave and the master were equal, does not sit very well with me. If these people on the island were so religious how can they justify slavery by saying that they still view the slave as an equal? It's kind of like, "yeah you are a slave but we see you as an equal so it is not really that bad". If they truly viewed them as an equal, slavery would have been gone before it had started. If they were so religious I do no believe that they would have allowed slavery. Yes, the slaves in South America did have opportunities to interact with society, such as buying their own freedom, being in a political office, and so on. Still, just because they had more rights than slaves in North America, does not negate the fact that they had slaves in the first place. Did they think they were better Christians because they treated their slaves better than Christians in North America? If so, they were just creating an illusion that prevented them from seeing that slave is not an equal, no matter who says it is. If Christianity was the proper way to justify slavery, why don't devout Christians in the present, fight for the right to own slaves today? Just because the people who have high authority on the land say that slaves are equal, it does not mean slaves are equal. Do you think that the slaves felt they were the same to their master?
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ReplyDeleteRobert, you seem to pose a number of interesting questions and claims regarding to the text however you may want to consider letting your audience know what you are referring to. Their needs to be a way you present the novel or piece of work you are speaking of in this response. By this I mean a literal mention of the novel, monograph etc. Also with all the questions you pose to the audience you may want to find a way to turn them into claims with reference from the text. There are a lot of questions that you leave unanswered when maybe you can create one question out of them all and answer them throughout your response.
ReplyDeleteSome questions you may want to consider answering are:
How were slaves different in America vs. the Spanish Colonies?
What other information from the text may you tie in to create clarity?
How is it exactly that the Spanish Christians justify slavery?
How was Slavery and Christianity related in the Spanish colonies?
You have great insight on the view of slavery. It was interesting to read your intake on the enslavement of people and their justification. I believe you have a good start to working on your perspective of this text. I liked the way you questioned the writing and threw in complicated questions to evoke ideas and thinking. I found it most intriguing when you mentioned the slave and master being equal in the eyes of Christians. Also the claim you made about an illusion being created to have slaves believe they were equal. They were both very important parts of your blog and I suggest working off those claims.
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the reading your comparison blog. You did an excellent job describing and summarizing both novels and you can clearly communicate what the plot is about. Also you did a good connection between both books. What I would suggest, and maybe consider, is to add a personal response and more critical thinking when it comes to the time the story took place and maybe emphasis on that. Another choice could be how morally the slave owners no matter how close they can get to a slave sometimes they just stick to the paradigm of their time. So bottom line, more critical thinking and a personal opinion. Also I noticed you used quotes from each book supporting your ideas. My only critic about the quotes is that you should not put a quote at the beginning or end of the paragraph, but more or less ate the middle. Before quoting you should have a sentence introducing the quote. After that you can write the quote and always remember that at the end of the sentence where the quote is write the authors last name and the page number. In your case it would look something like this; "'W'y, doctah,' he exclaimed in the saddest voice I have ever heard, 'w'y, doctah! I ain't stole nuffin' o' yo'n, an' I was comin' back" (Dunbar #). After that, paraphrase and analyze by telling the reader what you think, what it is and the meaning of the quote, but that part you did good. Hope my constructive criticism helps you!