Lettres d'autosuffisance

Autobiography derived from the Greek “self-life writing” is a form of literature that involves an account of a person's life written by its own character. This has been a very current process used in the past to confess not only to people but also to god, like Saint Augustine’s confessions that is considered as the first autobiography ever written, and then comes autobiographies only addressed to other human beings and deprived of religious character like Rousseau’s autobiography. But sometimes we can question the truth of this kind of literature, because we can’t be sure of what really happened, of course there are historical facts, proves, but can we really be certain of what the narrator is telling, at a point of view level, an emotional level?

In this essay we are going to answer what part of truth there is in an autobiographical recital, relying on an extract of a novel written by Williams Wells Brown: A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself (1847) in which he describes his life as a slave and how he escaped it.

I/ A soon to be freeman

a) Poor physical condition

The main Protagonist appears to be in a bad state, he is indeed walking barefoot with his feet frozen and clothes not suited to the North’s weather. He is also sick, he specifies the fact that he is has fever that confined him to bed for fifteen days, which is a pretty long time.

b) The escape

He talks about where he goes after probably escaping from the plantation he worked in as a slave. He describes the different places he went to on his way to Canada, places such as Dayton, State of Ohio, Cleveland and more precisely the Lake Erie.

c) The Quakers

During his escape, a Quaker, someone who is apart of a religious movement against slavery, helps him. The man is named Wells Brown; he received him in his home, fed and put him up for a few weeks.

II/ An engaged novel

a) Expose slavery

In this novel the author is denouncing slavery, because of the immorality of it but also because he lived it therefore he is concerned by the situation. He knows how the slavery works, how slaves were treated and what they had to do. He uses the literature to expose v

slavery and defend black people freedom and criticize actual society. He spreads anti-slavery truth, but can we really consider this as true if this is not objective?

b) Mobilize people

He writes to let know people about what is happening to slaves, he talks about Quakers as friends because of the help they provided him and also to show other persons that they can help slaves, they can make quit slavery. He uses a novel to make people realize what slavery involves by exposing his point of view, he somehow tries to influence their judgment by telling his truth.

c) Moralize slave owners

By showing the horror of a slave condition, he tries to show to slave owners their wrong doings to make them question themselves and maybe change their mind and stop slavery.

`n III/ Sentimental novel due to personal experience

1) Expose

...