Text 1 Response

Text 1

This excerpt from the autobiography, “The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole” follows the conventions of a memoir. Although not all autobiographies are memoirs, this text is a memoir because it is a reflection of her life. It offers her voice, it includes dialogue, it reflects on her past and so there are instances of which she offers hindsight wisdom, and it is a retelling of several larger anecdotes. As a result of this being memoir, it does not aim to persuade or influence a specific audience. It is more of a personal narrative and aims to retell events.

This text follows Seacole as she is surrounded by victims of yellow fever, a highly fatal disease. In the 1850’s, yellow fever was an epidemic that victimized the people of the island of Jamaica. Seacole was taking care of the people who were struck by the disease. She retells the story of how the island was dreadful and negatively impacted. Along the several stories mentioned, one discusses the journey of a young man who passed away as a result of the disease. Seacole found herself highly attached to the, ”light hearted and good young man”. She found her relationship with him reminiscent of a mother- son relationship. She discusses the grief that comes along with loss after attachment. Through her hindsight wisdom, she delivers the message that no one should be ashamed of the fear of death. She tries to convey the message that one’s perspective on death and life is only based on how afraid they are.

The author establishes a sad and sorrowful tone through her choice of language and content. Her discussion of loss and death conveys a mournful tone and an intense mood. The atmosphere is heavy and leaves the reader with a sense of loss. The text starts off with the line, “I stayed in Jamaica 8 months out of the year 1853, still remembered in the island for its suffering and gloom”. Automatically, Seacole has set the mood. It is clear that the rest of the text will not be happy and that the atmosphere is dark.

The story is from a bias point of view. It is not objective because she is retelling her own story and stating her own thoughts and experiences. Although it is not meant to be persuasive, it focuses specifically on one person’s perspective rather than allowing the reader to have their own perspective. The story does use pronouns because it is a retelling of her life events. She is using “I” and “You” in order to make the story seem more personal and allow the reader to engage with it more. Using pronouns is a way the author uses to hook the reader. Because it is deeply personal and sad and is written as a sad conversation, the reader feels engaged with it. There is a lot of direct speech used, again, in order to make it seem like a personal conversation. The story also uses a lot of imagery. This helps set the atmosphere and the mood.