Slave Moth

Thylias Moss did an excellent job writing her book Slave Moth. This story about Varl's escape from slavery is written in such a way that readers can actually imagine having to live this type of life. Not only do the readers imagine this with the descriptive symbols and metaphors that Moss used, but the above literary devices makes it possible to emotional about Varl's situation along with understanding the way Varl's mind thinks and why she thinks the things she does. There are many things that define the character of Varl. The schooling that Esmenda provided for interested slaves shows not all people felt that slavery was right, and felt that all people were entitled to some sort of education. Of course, this was not the feeling of most people and many would go to whatever extreme necessary in order to keep this from happening. This is true of the Mr. Littleton who threatened Esmenda by doing threatening things to keep her farm from producing and as a constant reminder of what would happen if he felt she was continuing with what he felt was nonsense. Because Mamalee knew her literacy was intimidating to Mr. Littleton, she played along with acting unintelligent because this is what many in society not only wanted to see during this time, but it is what they believed in. This fear made it difficult for Blacks to move ahead. If people are faced with fear and it affects how they act, then of course this will define a big part of their character. This indeed did define part of Varl's character. Moss also demonstrated how children had the same outlook as their parents. She did this through the character of Lusa, Peter Perry's child. This child not only cut Varl down whenever she felt like it, she also tried to threaten her with Dob and insinuated that she could make life very difficult for Varl just by talking with her father. This would be very difficult to take especially when one knows they can't do anything about the situation, except to plan escape in order to seek freedom. I liked how it was written in verse and think this only made the story better.