Activity “The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole".

This article is an excerpt from the autobiography of “The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole".  It highlights and follows the common characteristics of a memoir. The text is a reflection, of her life. Due to the speech used in first person the dialogue provides her interpretation of struggles and her reflection of past events. There are specific instances she offers her hindsight wisdom in context with the several personal encounters she has had.

It does not intend to persuade an audience or have any specific influences, but rather to be more of personal narrative.

The memoir initially talks about how Seacole was surrounded by people infected with yellow fever which was an epidemic in the 1850’s. The setting is the island of Jamaica. Seacole retells of her encounters as a caretaker of the sick. The death surrounding her; she explains as “dreadful”.  Among the other stories she stays on the topic of one young man Seacole was fond of and rather attached to. She retells of his passing and how it brought out and made her connect it with a mother- son relation. She then makes a statement saying that no one should be ashamed of the fear of death. The article is solely based the idea of; on one’s perception of death and how life revolves around how scared one is.

Relatively the tone of this article is sad due to the deaths Seacole talks of. The content and language are used to emphasize the sorrowful tone and serious mood. The audience is left with the heavy and intense feeling of death as Seacole begins the article with “still remembering an island for its suffering and gloom”. From the beginning the tone is set driving the rest of the article to follow the same tone and mood.

The story is not objective but rather bias since it is a memoir. It follows a constrict structure of self-evaluation and her perspective therefore making it hard for any interpretation by the reader. The story uses personal pronouns such as “I” in order to ensure the story stays very personal. The use of imagery helps set the mood and tone.