Week 7 Literary Analysis: Equiano "The Interesting Narrative..."

In Olaudah Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of the Life Olaudah Equiano,” there’s a passage that struck me to be quite interesting:

           

“As our manners are simple, our luxuries are few. The dress of both sexes is nearly the same. It generally consists of a long piece of calico, or muslin, wrapped loosely round the body, somewhat in the form of a highland plaid. This is dyed blue, which is our favourite colour. It is extracted from a berry, and is brighter and richer than any I have seen in Europe. Besides this, our women of distinction wear golden ornaments; which they dispose with some profusion on their arms and legs. When our women are no employee with the men in tillage, their usual occupation is spinning and weaving cotton, which they afterwards dye, and make it into garments. They also manufacture earthen vessels, of which we have many kinds. Among the rest tobacco pipes, made after the same fashion, and used in the same manner, as those in Turkey.” (Page 79)

One reason I liked this passage is because it seems like they don’t need a lot of things in order to be happy in life. They like the simple things, like living off the land. “As our manners are simple, our luxuries are few.” They don’t need fancy items or luxurious things. They live off the land by using “a long piece of calico, or muslin” and is “extracted from a berry.” The women also spin and weave cotton and use that to make garments, which also goes to show that they live off the land and live off what they need; they don’t seem to waste things.

The only thing that seems luxurious or extravagant is that the “women of distinction wear golden ornaments; which they dispose with some profusion on their arms and legs.” It seems unclear whether these women with the golden ornaments are higher class women (which would make sense that they’d have golden ornaments) or if it’s the women of the same class as the men – if that’s the case, perhaps the women have the golden ornaments to make them feel a little more feminine and classy.