Zakiyyah
Abdus-Salaam
The White
Castle: Part One
February
12, 2013
Unfortunately, since the beginning of society, slavery has
been a reoccurring theme in the evolution of high-functioning societies. The
first half of The While Castle, has many similarities to slave
narratives that I have read by various authors, about their perception of
slavery in the West from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Africans, such
as Olaudah Equiano, author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano, were captured from their homelands just as abruptly as
the narrator was seized from the ship he was traveling on to Naples. The
captured civilians were treated brutally and inhumanely in both instances; and
if they were "lucky" to make it to shore, they would be turned into
slaves for the "royalty " of the land.
Another similarity to early American slavery that I stumbled
upon in the first half of this novel was the idea that converting to the
religion of your ruler could eventually lead one to freedom. The pasha
stated numerous times that the narrator could become a free man if he
converted to Islam (29). Many en-captured slaves would think trading religion
for their freedom sounds like a decent deal, but to prideful individuals such
as the Venetian narrator in The White Castle and many African slaves, with Islamic
rather than Catholic views, expressed that their religious views meant more to
them than an "easy" way to freedom.
I am looking forward to continuing
Pamuk's novel and uncovering more similarities between slavery in different
cultures.
Slavery is extremely prevalent in high functioning societies, I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to look at the narrator's treatment as a slave as compared to the treatment of slaves by other societies that kept slaves, because I feel that once the narrator was in the custody of the Hoja, he was not truly bound by any obvious walls or chains..
He was left to his own devices a significant amount of time. Obviously we cannot know all as the narrator is unreliable, yet given the conditions we can see, I personally would probably have tried to escape, especially with that amount of freedom and the wits to gather supplies and use them creatively.
The narrator claims to have left loved ones at home.. so why has he not yet tried to escape?
Most of the historical tales about slavery include stories of daring escapes.. Where is the escape this time?
There does not even seem to be a plan in progress...