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Robert Hayden and The Middle Passage

In regards of another renowned peer post by...

 linzersamples

Lindsay does s great job in recognizing and understanding the imagery used in Robert Hayden's The Middle Passage.

 

“Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,

Sharks following the moans the fever and the dying:

Horror the corposant and compass rose

Middle Passage:

voyage through death

to life upon these shores.” (Hayden 1114).

In this passage by Hayden Lindsay goes to explain how there are two different types of imagery being displayed here. The literal imagery goes...

to a person ripped away from everything that is familiar and perhaps not having ever seen a sailing vessel the sails must have seemed terrifying.  Seeing them rip through the wind for the first time, it would perhaps seem frightening and dangerous…like a weapon.

          This is a very serious image the reader gets. you can feel the anxiety and the fear behind the eyes of the individual upchucking such a visual. To somebody who was unwillingly removed from their complete way of life and thrown into a horrific struggle for survival in a new world all the different from what they are accustomed to, the sight of the sails ripping through the wind and the blood thirsty sharks following the death hungry moans of the dieing would have been most likely memorably noted as a cacophony. This literal interpretation  is appalling and makes the reader grimace in denial that something like this could be allowed to happen. Next, Lindsay point out the figurative imagery of  Hayden's passage as goes...

The sharks could be a metaphor for those capturing people for slave trade, following the cries of those people desperate to escape them.

          You can see the connection Lindsay is making with this observation of figurative imagery. The poor souls caught in the fleeing of the slave trade were relentlessly pursued, like sharks in the ocean; detecting the faintest wafting of its next victims blood. To the reader, through this imagery, you get a keen sense of the inner chaos of the slaves in their helplessness to their persecutors. The reader feels like they are stuck on the ship, helpless and scared; without any means of rescue or help.

         Understanding the different views of imagery here is important to getting at the true meaning of Hayden's work. By taking into aspect the figurative aside from the literal imagery provided, the reader can get a sense of duel emotion. Instead of just watching the events of The Middle Passage go down, you can feel them, and youa re along for the boat ride with the slaves on the ship.
         The reader can see the anger and content of the slaves towards the white slave drivers, and can also feel the sad emotions of depressions, hopelessness and weariness. By drafting such genuine schemes of emotional attachment to the plot, Hayden gets the reader to become the true nail bitter. Lindsay does a great job of showing this to anybody who previously did not realize this!