I thought it was interesting that Equiano’s narrative was similar in many ways to the 18th century travel narratives we read, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels. It especially reminded me of Gulliver’s Travels in the section we read for Tuesday, in which Equiano did a lot of traveling to lands unfamiliar to the average European reader. Each place that we go, he tells us his impressions of the culture of the land, similar to the way that Gulliver gives a detailed description of each of the unfamiliar countries that he found himself in. The most detailed of these descriptions is the one at the very beginning regarding the culture of Equiano’s homeland, but several other cultures are described as well. One thing that is different in Equiano’s Interesting Narrative is that life on a ship is described in detail as one of the distinct cultures that Equiano lives in, whereas ships in Gulliver’s Travels were simply used to get Gulliver to and from the different societies he ends up in, as well as to give the reader an exciting ship crash scene in between his more important adventures. Equiano not only described the dynamics of ship life, but also gave several exciting battle scenes.
However, the Interesting Narrative is far from simply an adventure text. Equiano’s moments of reflection on God and life reminded me a lot of Robinson Crusoe. Like Crusoe, Equiano develops a relationship with God as a result of the circumstances he is put in. Equiano is not nearly as internal as Crusoe in his narrative, but he does have his moments of almost instructive and philosophical thoughts about God and how He relates to his situation.
These elements of travel narrative in Equiano’s Interesting Narrative probably made it very enjoyable to the average European at the time, if the popularity of other travel narratives gives an indication of popular literature preferences at the time. His narrative would be interesting to read even for someone who was not an advocate for slave rights, so Equiano’s entertaining writing style probably helped him gain a wider audience for his message against slavery.
