History is the science of human existence. Throughout many centuries historians have been studying records or particular events of various times and places. The United States of America is at once a brand new nation and a very old and ancient one. However, the United States of America did not start functioning as we are all used to see it now until 1776, when the Declaration of Independence had been established. The history of the United States is a chronicle of plenty of nations who together compose the grand United States of America. Since the first Europeans arrived in 1492, millions of people from many different countries have entered the United States and made the country their new home.
Just the way the history had been processing as a natural occurrence, the terms “confidence” and “captivity” appeared and gained its own coloring within the frames of the US history and the US literature.
“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, using the pseudonym “Linda Brent.” The entire book is based on feminist thoughts and therefore it points out the actual term of slavery and captivity in relevance to the cusp of girlhood. The book reveals various humiliations the author had to endure in that unhappy condition together with particular tortures experienced by women.
The main trait of the book is that the author shows the level of confidence and captivity of both men and women to be nearly equal. Jacobs puts Linda in similar straits as men, though acting on her convictions and gaining the same freedom.
It is hard not to see that Linda’s condition as a slave is the main source of her unhappiness. This is where her confidence suffers from constant attacks, suggestions and harassment by her owner Dr. Flint. And here, we can purely follow the way “captivity” is embodied – Dr. Flint does not punish her with whippings but with words.
Women Captives and Indian Captivity Narratives were created to be the special genre of American literature. Here we observe the use of “captivity” as a violent and brutal expression of society. The main characters are usually white European women kidnapped or captured by American Indians. The captivity narratives determine principles of a nation – what a woman should and should not do. In these stories, the world and life of women are described pretty vividly. All they see is the violent deaths of their husbands, brothers, and children. Often, they are forced to fulfill roles unusual for women: being violent in their own defense, physical challenges such as long journeys on foot, or lies of their captors. That is how the term “confidence” is expressed. Women, forced to live the way they are not created or meant to, are made to change their views and confidences according to the environment and conditions they are put into.
The Confidence-Man (1857), Melville’s last major effort to personify satire of American life set on a Mississippi River steamboat. The Confidence-Man uses the Mississippi River as a tool in order to identify the broader aspects of the American character that brings together and unites those disparate characters. Melville also uses the river’s fluidity as a metaphor to the shifting identities of his “confidence man.” The novel’s title refers to its central character, a double-faced figure that sneaks aboard a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool’s Day. This stranger attempts to challenge the confidence of the passengers. In this work, Melville surpassed himself, illustrating the human masquerade.
The novel is written in cultural satire style, allegory, and metaphysical treatise, dealing with themes of sincerity and irony. Melville has chosen to set the novel on April Fool’s Day, which underlines the work’s satirical nature.
One can hardly deny Herman Melville had a strong imagination to capture the reader and reveal the finest traits of humans’ characters. His hero appeals to conthe confidence of everybody under different masks, and he turns out to be pretty successful…… He required a thorough knowledge of the world in order to write such a book and make the satire keen and perceptive, and the scenes not too unbelievable for the fiction to prevail. Also, the absence of humor gives way to the absence of kindliness. The view of human nature is severe and obscure. Few Americans write so powerfully about humans’ nature and confidence itself. The way the author exposed confidence and challenged the characters to react astonishes them.