Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

I particularly enjoyed reading this narrative; its tone is much different from that of Douglas’ or even Equiano’s. I did not recognize the masculine tone in the Douglas narrative until we discussed it in class. Even after discussing it in class I didn’t really see the importance of pointing that note out. That is until I began to read Linda’s narrative. Linda’s narrative is written in a complete feminism tone, the things discussed in the text can only have been written by a woman. The example that comes to mind is the inappropriate relations between Linda and Dr. Flint.
Throughout the text Linda describes how she was forced into sexual relations with Dr. Flint. Not only was she being sexually abused, Dr. Flint also threatened Linda’s life if she were to tell anyone about these terrible experiences. Although Dr. Flint never acted on this threat Linda often debated what was better; death or the continuing of the sexual abuse.
The thought of death is for most of us, one of our biggest fears. For Linda death wasn’t a fear, several times throughout the text Linda actually wished death upon herself. I thought about how ghastly things must have been for someone to want to die. I thought for a long time and just couldn’t fathom what she must have been going through, to actually wish death upon not only herself, but also on her children.
I think for Linda death was a scapegoat to avoid all of the negative things that were going on in her life. Not only was Dr. Flint physically abusive he was also mentally abusive. Linda’s self esteem and confidence was nil, she had no hope or ambition to live, so for her death seemed like the better option. I am not positive but I think that her low self esteem and nonexistent confidence were the key factors in her wanting to die, because I though for a long time and I couldn’t even begin to comprehend when death would be a better option then living.