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19 November 2016

Knowledge is power and true power cannot be institutionalized

Through the tribunals and experiments on the basis of which human history has been

written it has been very well established that knowledge indeed is power. Knowledge leads to

informed actions and informed actions lead to results, hence the juxtaposition that it is power

stands proven. The pursuit of knowledge has taken different paths throughout history. First,

was the path of gaining knowledge through experiences as knowledge was not

institutionalized. Everyone learned through their mistakes and experiences. The other way is

to get an education, which is the more modern approach. The effectiveness of both is

different and high in their own virtues but when real life calls for people to take actions, it

can be considered that knowledge learned through personal experiences and observations

serves better than institutionalized knowledge. This can be attributed to the fact that,

education is tailored to fit certain standards and notions while life in general does not fit into

any one category and is fleeting at the best. In this essay there will be a discussion as to

whether institutional knowledge serves the authors of stories under scrutiny serve them better

or their learnings from personal experiences that they went through.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a first person account of

the author’s life through his many voyages at sea and around the land of West Indies, the

Mediterranean and many other places. The author is kidnapped and pushed into slavery at the
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age of eleven and has to fight for many years for freedom. This personal fight instils in him a

sense of gratitude towards life and a fierce energy to fight for abolitionist causes in the later

years of his life. The author states in the account that he was once a happy child in Africa and

belonged to a farmer’s family. Then he is abruptly taken away from his childhood and

abruptly planted in Virginia as a slave. Sometime later he is purchased by a British Naval

officer by the name of Pascal and starts to believe that he is free, although this illusion is

shattered and this makes him state,

“Thus, at the moment I expected all my toils to end, was I plunged, as I supposed, in a
new slavery: in comparison of which all my service hitherto had been perfect
freedom; and whose horrors, always present to my mind, now rushed on it with
tenfold aggravation” (Chapter 5, p. 95)

In this moment he understands that slavery does not give freedom and it only changes hands,

from one master to another. He realizes that all the work that he did was not a gratitude for

freedom but a fee for being bought from the old and sold to the new.

The Little Black boy is a poem written by William Blake and is written in a time

when slavery was still legal in England. Blake introduces a boy in the first stanza and states

that his, “soul is white”. This is used by the author to portray that children of either races are

pure hearted and that the racial differences are a trait imbued by the people around them as

they grow up. To make the little child understand God’s love, his mother quotes that, people

with black color are loved more by God and hence are, “Sun-burnt”. The author throughout

the poem establishes that although there may be differences taught in the world, but through

his self-realization he understands that he is not inferior to the white child. Although, he

states that he has to go through pain and suffering in his time, the author is firm on his belief

and does not care for the slave practices that he has to suffer through. This power in him to

bear atrocities has come from his mother narration that God does not see them as inferior to
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the whites. At the end of the poem, the author states that although his body is black and

inferior, his soul and spiritual being is kindred, the same like that of a white child.

A simple heart, by Gustave Flaubert is a description of life and fantasies of a diligent

and kind hearted servant by the name of Felicite. The detailed story gives an overview of her

daily life that is spent working for a widow of middle class social category, by the name of

Madame Aubain., who was not an easy going person to deal with and this lead to many

conflicting situations with the maid servant. Felicite had lost her parents at an early age and

was reared in a very hap hazardous way, exposed to abuse as a young child and had to suffer

through life without any affections. She fell in love at a young age but was cheated by her

love who goes on to marry another woman, who is rich. This leads to her weeping in open

fields and is then approached by her new employer, the widow who also has children. The

widow is very difficult to haggle with, but Felicite makes very few demands and having

hardened through her tribunals deals with her in a head strong yet kind manner. As, years

pass by, Felicite starts to lose her hearing as stated by the line, “imaginary buzzing noises in

her head” as she grows older and yet is soothed by the house parrot who she treats as her son.

In the meanwhile, her employer dies and leaves her a pension, shortly after which Felicite

also passes away with the parrot hovering over her procession which ironically is also

attended by many but her mistresses’ funeral procession is attended by none.