Quincy Fargo Economics Book Analysis 9/5/15 The POX Party Analysis The book The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The POX Party by M.T. Anderson was written and published in 2006. The story starts in 1760s and ends in the 1770s about an African Prince named Octavian Nothing who was born in America under the servitude of Mr. Gitney and was educated like European royalty as an experiment. The book is part of a series which contains two books, the second book being The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves. Both book genres are in the historical fiction category but the information used in the first book being closely linked to materials within the …show more content…
When the book first starts it presents him as naive and willing to accept anything said as fact and an example of this is when he is told to record and weigh his feces to tell the differences from when he eats it and excretes it. Later in the story he finds out no one else weighs their feces and finds it odd no one would want to know how much their food was changed. With time, Octavian was unwilling to follow all of the rules he was told and started branching out to formulate his own opinions about the world. This is shown when he enters a room dedicated to detailing the experiment involving his entire life, this catalyzes his mentality into changing as a whole and is reinforced when getting to know Pro Bono, a slave with a less fortunate situation. As the book goes on as Octavian matures into a young man seeing the world in a different view. He starts to see the hypocrisy of the patriots fighting for freedom, the racial bias others are more than willing to impose on his race, and runs away from it all to no longer be constrained into slavery. His character changes from the naive little boy learning other languages to a young adult realizing how inhumane slavery is regardless of their situation. The story does have its strengths and weaknesses which can take away from the entire novel or give an interest to …show more content…
The book had several weaknesses which could be off putting for some individuals; the world outside Octavian’s is shown in little fragments thrown to and fro, the beginning starts slow and is rather dry, certain areas in the book can become confusing to readers, and Octavian’s character is viewed from dozens of letters written by a soldier rather than from Octavian himself, effectively avoiding what he may be experiencing. The book does have various strengths which will appeal to several groups of people; a convincing narrative about the life of a black slave not on a plantation, the experiments which actually happened, showing life in the 1770s in most of its entirety, the racial superiority taking place in subtle ways to show accuracy within the time period, those who are empathetic, and moral implications of what Octavian went through. Even if the reader isn’t a historian they will be able to appreciate the book for what it is, A historical fiction retelling of an age that dictated the course of history as a
In the end of the book he was completely changed, he has lost his innocence, his sense of normalcy and morality, their hope, and his faith, and the
In the novel, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party, by MT Anderson, follows a young boy named Octavian. This book is set in Boston in the 1700s. As a 13-year-old, Octavian’s mother is bought as a slave by Mr. Gitney, the head of the college, as a 2-for-1 deal. Mr. Gitney is conducting an experiment at his college, the College of Lucidity. He is trying to figure out if an African American could be as intelligent as white royalty if they are provided with the same education.
He begins to like magic and the magisterium because he has friends there unlike his old school. But what he finds out about himself will change everything for him and everyone around him if he is willing to tell. I loved this book! It had
Throughout the entire book, the main character, Luke Reid, had many characteristic changes. Luke went from thief, to a nobody, to a person that cared. Starting from always being a thief is a tough place to start from. At the beginning of the book, Luke is a thief who is really good at picking locks.
The name of the book is The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The POX Party. M.T. Anderson is the author of this novel. The book was published in 2006. This novel is about the eighteenth century when a slave, named Octavian Nothing, is kidnapped from Africa and is made part of a college experiment, and realizes how inhumane slavery is. This novel is a part of the POX Party series.
In the beginning of the novel, the narrator realizes that he is inferior when he is invited to the battle royal. At this event the narrator along with some other boys were humiliated for the entertainment of the wealthy white men of the town. This event showed the narrator how society was stunted in growth because of their inability to assimilate into
They both are very good books and tell stories about suffering, trying to make the best out of everything and trying not to lose
Both novels " The dark game" and " The Code Book" are both similar and different in many ways. They are both books that cover accounts of spies around the world durning war. They both reveal information on spies and they use very different styles and tones. There alot similar meaning they both share about code breaking and how it was a very difficulty proccess but also very nessacary from the victroy that the US took from the 2 wars that these books focus on. These 2 articals are both Non-fiction books.
Even though they may have shared some similarities, they also have some differences like the setting of where
However, when he is sent to work for a temporary master, not only is his physical body shattered, but as his determination and his spirit. Nevertheless, one day. when Douglass finds the will to fight back, he finds a new, stronger sense of strength that continues to thrive within him from that moment forward. The altercation between Douglass and the temporary slave master marks a new beginning for Frederick Douglass as a slave and also as a
Some playwrights choose to write plays about historical events, among them there is The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a play that describes the downfall of the rule of Julius Caesar, but is also a play that is not as truthful as it first impressionably is, a complete truthful account of Julius Caesar’s assassination and the events leading up to it. In order to greater attract the audience, Shakespeare, along with other playwrights, relied on adding historical inaccuracies to add the necessary suspense. Thus, Shakespeare strayed away from historical events occurring during Caesar’s lifetime, implementing inaccuracy into the story. Shakespeare based one of his most well-known plays, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, on historical events that includes
Firstly, the issue noted above that we do not know the order of the Parallel Lives, makes interpretation difficult because we therefore can’t understand how Plutarch’s themes developed and interacted with each other throughout the entire series. This is an issue in Life of Marius because of how singularly negative Plutarch is about Marius, to the point where it has been noted as his most critical work on any character. Secondly, the genre of biography itself and its focus on character rather than fact, inherently suggests that Plutarch may exaggerate some events and omit others, in order to communicate his lessons on morality. For example, Plutarch is far more descriptive of political events in which Marius can be portrayed as immoral and ambitious. However, he says little on the political platform on which Marius ran for consulship, and downplays the political acumen Marius, as a novus homo, or even if he had been nobilis, must have had to gain consulship for 6 straight years.
Although there are many differences between the two, there are also many similarities. Like how in both the movie and the novel she outsmarts the
His past in slavery is something he was unable to forget and believes that being a slave made him a traitor because he did not fight back. He continued to live as a slave, never once questioning the white mans authority. At the ballroom in the hotel, the boys in the battle royal are used as entertainment and the narrator realizes that his speech may not be the reason he is at the meeting. During the match, the narrator finds himself in a struggle for survival and tries to get away from participating but he must fight his way through. During his speech, the narrator says “social equality” instead of social responsibility” and the white men are quick to point out his mistake ,”We mean to do right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times.
By doing so, he captures his freedom from the detrimental and contagious dictatorship. As Equality begins the stage of curiosity and the idea of learning at a young age, he is forced to conform to societal rules and regulations, not being more intelligent than his brothers, as they are equal. The first struggle that is against him is the power of education and learning. He