Being resilient to face problem

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5. Being positive to look back bad experiences

Being colored is the hardest time in the past. Looking at the history of slaves, many black people are sold by white master. They are brought from Africa in ferry then move in a boat or in a canoe. When the canoe heeled, some of we jumped, others were pulled under and we did not see their blood swirl until we alive ones were retrieved and placed under guard 2009: 164. Arriving at America, they are sold. European people offer slaves to the other whites who have either plantation or farm. Slaves work as a servant. They usually work as a house servant or work as a farmworker. Black slaves try to survive to continue their life in the new world although they are under control white people. Not only Florens and her mother, but also many slaves have the same bad experience with it. “After times and times of puzzle about why I could not die as others did. After p retending to be so in order to get thrown overboard” 2009: 165. White people treat slaves as non-human. They are very awfulness. In that quotation, Florens‟s mother as inferiority looked suffer. She thinks that she wants to die the same destiny with the other black to end her suffering. She feels weak in front of white people who have an authority to do everything they want. Because of the cruelty, it makes the slaves depress. White people pretend them as nobody. As time goes, Florens ‟s mother is purchased by D‟Ortega and shipping to the north with the tobacco. In the D‟Ortega‟s house, Minha Mae and Florens work. “Before this place I spend my days picking okra and sweeping tobacco s heds, my nights on the floor of the cookhouse with a Minha Mae” 2009: 5-6. Florens and her mother work in D‟Ortega‟s plantation. They order to picking okra 55 and sweeping tobacco sheds every day. In the night, they do not have proper room to spend the nigh t to sleep. D‟Ortega puts them in the cookhouse to sleep. Even they just sleep on the floor of the cookhouse that must be cold in the night. It is the same experiences with her mother, Florens has the same bad experiences too. She is also sold by D‟Ortega. Her mother offers Florens to be purchased to the other owner. When she is purchased by Jacob Vaark, she is still child. “Lina says from the state of my teeth I am maybe seven or eight when I am brought here” 2009: 5. Lina tells to Florens that she is brought by Jacob Vaark when she is around seven or eight years old. In that age that still young, she must work by herself. The bad matter that Florens experiences is in the young age, she must be separated from her mother and her baby boy. Even her mother rejects her and offers her to the other owner. She feels jealous because her mother chooses her baby boy rather than herself. Not because our work is more, but because mothers nursing greedy babies scare me. I know how their eyes go when they choose. How they raise them to look at me hard, saying something I cannot hear. Saying something important to me, but holding the little boy‟s hand 2009: 8. From the quotation above, Florens tries to be tough face her life. When she is very young, her mother just like throw Florens ‟s away from her. Florens also state „nursing greedy babies‟, it means that she is very jealous with her little brother. “You don‟t seem to comprehend my offer. I not forfeiting my debt. I honoring it. The value of a seasoned slave is bey ond adequate.” “Not if I can‟t use her.” “Use her? Sell her.” 2009: 25. 56 In that conversation above , D‟Ortega is very cruel. It is because he states that Florens is not only to be used but also to be sold. It looks that Jacob Vaark cannot accept Florens to be his servant at first. But then, Jacob Vaark receives Florens. He employs Florens as his servant. Flash back to the story when Minha mae is shipped to the America become a slave, Florens is sold when she is still a child, both of the experiences, it can be analyse as remembering past is not always good. The miserable is always imagining them. The suffering is never end in the New World, it makes them try to survive under control white people. Many slaves have several bad experiences rather than good experiences at that time. This moral value remains somebody who is enthusiast to prepare his or her better future. As human being, somebody should think positively to look back memorably experiences although it is bad. There are positive effects behind it. Human being should takes out of bad experiences of the past which is happen as a lesson for future life.