Incidents Blog Post 1

The book titled "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" is a slave narrative about the life of Harriet Jacobs. In the book Jacobs uses the character of Linda Brent to explain her life without giving her real name away. The book certainly has some elements which struck me. The first one of all, and the one that's noticed right away, is Jacobs' tone in the book. In the book Jacobs talks about problems in a way which we are not used to. When Jacobs speaks about her mistress' death, she uses a tone which doesn't show much emotion. Jacobs says "When I was nearly twelve years old, my kind mistress sickened and died." (Jacobs 5) Jacobs tone in this sentence is very calm, which strikes me very much. She loved her mistress and her death was most likely a very painful experience for Jacobs. However she doesn't express her grief very well in the book. Another thing which shocks me about Jacobs' writing is how Jacobs switch from subject to subject very quickly. One minute she was talking about her happy days as a child and the next she talks about the death of her mistress. What gets me the most about her transitions is how she does it in the calmest manner, even if she's referring to something tragic. If I could ask Jacobs a few questions, after reading the first few chapters, they would be: Why do you use such a different tone then most authors do? Do you want us to draw our own feelings from the events?