Style and Form Analysis of Harriet Jacob's "incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

In Harriet Jacobs's narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs gives a first person vista into the abominable "peculiar institution", known as slavery. She opens the reader into her mind, as she herself reflects on the hardships she faced as a slave in North Carolina. Her life and the life of her children are constantly threatened because of the lack of power in her life. With the encouragement and advice from her family and friends, Jacobs was able to withstand the iron cuffs of slavery and eventually gain her freedom. The diction, form, and style of Jacob's narrative has a major influence.

One of Jacobs' most important elements is her diction. Jacobs's use of powerful vivid words adds intensity and description to the story. In the passage, "It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates daughters, and makes the wives wretched."(pg. 62), Jacobs uses the words violent, licentious, contaminates, and wretched to not only add description but puts emphasis on the malicious effects of slavery. Another example of how Jacobs uses diction to add intensity and description is, "One day the screams of a child nerved me with the strength to crawl to my peeping-hole, and I saw my son covered with blood. A fierce dog,..." (p 136). Screams, fierce, "covered with blood", and nerved give description and intensity by introducing fear. In this case, Jacobs word choice set the mood for the passages that follows.

Another important element that impacted Jacobs's purpose was the tone. The mood of the entire story, which was set by Jacobs tone, was of despair. Even when Jacobs was "free" in New York she always had to be alert of her environment because everywhere she went, she was bondaged and oppressed. The only safe-haven Jacobs could rely on, her grandmother's house, was bombarded by, her master, Dr. Flint. The importance of the tone allows the reader to feel the sadness and horror Jacobs faced. By using words such as vitiate, profligate, and licentious, the tone is recognized as being one of despair. Jacobs used words that expressed malice, and even with her extensive vocabulary, Jacobs still "...needs an abler pen than [hers] to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation."( page 62).This expression meant, that no matter how hard Jacobs tried to explain and reflect on how terrible slavery was, the only way one would know is by actually being a slave and experiencing those things for themselves. The tone of the story also gives the reader a sense of the relationship between the slave and the slave owner, as seen in the passage "'How dare you tell me so!' he exclaimed, in great wrath. ...'I supposed you thought more of yourself; that you felt above the insults of puppies'" (p 47). Jacobs made sure to present that slave owners could say