Essay on Spirituality in the Works of Linda Brent, Toni Morrison, and Sapphire :: compare and contrast essay examples

Inclusive Spirituality in the Works of Linda Brent, Toni Morrison, and Sapphire - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and Push      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What would it be like to be torn from your home and sent so far away you could never return? And what would it be like to have your history stripped from you, your name discarded, and your own religion replaced with one that had few, if any, ties to your previous life? When slaves were brought to America they were taken from all they had known and forced to live in a land of dark irony that, while promising life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided them with only misery. In a situation such as the one in which the slaves found themselves, many people would rely on their religion to help them survive. But would slaves be able to find spiritual comfort within the parameters of a religion that had been passed on to them from the slaveholders? In each of the three texts "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," Song of Solomon, and Push, African-Americans struggle to find a spirituality that is responsive to their needs and that encompasses their experiences i n a way that the religion of the dominant culture does not.    Of the three texts to be examined, Linda Brent's Autobiography, "Incidents," most explicitly shows the inability of the dominant culture's religion to fulfill the needs of the minority. From the tone of her story, one realizes that Brent felt "true Christianity," if it could be found, might comfort the slaves and fulfill their needs. But Brent also felt that slavery created a paradox which made "true Christianity" impossible.    Many times in her text Brent points out the irony that, as slaveholders, the masters treat their slaves as property; yet, as Christians, they should treat them as humans. For example, Brent's mother's mistress promises that Brent and her siblings will "never suffer for any thing" (343). Brent assumes that this means they will be given their freedom when the mistress dies; however, they are not freed but passed along as property. Brent says that her mistress taught her the biblical principles that she should treat others as she would wish to be treated, and that she should adhere to the biblical commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself," but then she pointedly adds, "But I was her slave, and I suppose she did not recognize me as her neighbor"(344).