The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written by Equiano himself, portrayed the life of a young boy who was captured into slavery. As he grew up in the world of slavery, going from master to master, he encountered a struggle to find his own identity. He went from Africa, to the Caribbean, to the Americas, to the West Indies, and also spent a great deal of his time out at sea. In each place that he went, Equiano encountered different cultures that had begun to change him and moved him away from his own culture. The Europeans had a great affect on him, particularly the English. The book editor Robert Alison commented that, .
"His years of slavery in the West Indies and life as a free man in Europe and at sea had given him a dual identity and made him recognize that though he was culturally an Englishman, he had become a son of Africa" (Alison 4).
Showing how Equiano realized that although his African roots were held strong, he came to the point where he was "Europeanized.".
Within his first experiences as a slave, Equiano is still able to see similarities from his own culture, yet differences began to accumulate. It was these differences that would begin to change him. The first owners that he .
-2.
was with were from Africa and their land resembled that of the land that Equiano grew up on. They spoke a language similar to his own and resembled the people that he was accustomed to. Of these similarities and differences he said, .
"All the nations and people I had hitherto passed through, resembled our own in their manners, customs, and language; but I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us in all those particulars. I was very much struck with this difference, especially when I came among a people who did not circumcise, and ate without washing their hands. They cooked also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and cross bows, which were unknown to us, and fought with their fists among themselves.