Short Essay – Option 3

Prompt

Please consider the following question regarding Olaudah Equiano and/or Mary Prince: Did s/he lose her/his original spirituality, or did Equiano/Prince adopt a Christian religion?  In order to answer this question please choose one specific example to structure your answer around.

 

RE: “Equiano”

Hi Fred – I like your comments about Equiano’s Crusoe-like struggles with God, and I wonder who’s were more difficult or if they’re just too different to compare. For example, Equiano wasn’t marooned on an island, but he had to wade through the priests’ mysterious preaching, and it ended up confusing and upsetting him much more than if he had just studied by himself like Crusoe did.

Religion and Fate in The Interesting Narrative and Robinson Crusoe

While reading Olaudah Equaino’s The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, I kept noticing the way he attributed both his fortune and misfortune to providence, and was not surprised when he declared it was an “all-powerful fate” that determined his destiny (91). However, his conflict between “not knowing whether salvation was to be had partly for our own good deeds, or solely as a sovereign gift of God,” meaning if his salvation was determined by free will or fate, still caused him much confusion and heartache because of the intentional mysteriousness of the priests (190).