Incidents

I think that it is extremely important that this book is nonfiction. In fact, that is what makes the book what it is- people can dream up all sorts of horrible things to write about, but in the end, it is still something that someone dreamed up. As I read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, There are parts of the book that are so shocking or so angering that they make me want to put the book down and walk away. There are parts that, if it were a fictional book, I could say "oh, well this wasnt real; it couldn't really happen" but in the case of this book, I find myself constantly having to remind myself that it was true, because it doesn't seem like it could possibly be- but it is. That is what makes it so incredibly effective. Same with in terms of language- The fact that the language isn't cleaned up makes it extremely raw. Although the author is a very good writer, and the words she uses are not 5 cent words, it is still very obviously straight out of her head and her experiences; her telling the truth exactly how she remembers it.