In this image, there is a shy, and nervous tiny horse. He represents Octavian, because he does not speak, or show his brilliance, but when he does show how smart he is, he realizes that he is worth more than he thinks. It also represents all the people of the house breaking out of their frames (their numbers) and using their real names, finding their own identities. It shows this because he is just a baby horse, and as he grows up he will find himself, and who he really is.
Context Research
Octavian Nothing’s characters obviously did not live at one time. However, there are some characters who may have inspired this story. There are two people I am going to mention in these context notes.
The first person was a man named Francis Williams. He was a black Jamaican man who was luckily born into a free family. (Free as in they worked off their years and could now live without being controlled.) Even luckier for Francis Williams, his family was quite wealthy.
Francis had unusual circumstances considering his scenario. His wealth gave him the opportunity to be properly educated like any other white men. His father really wanted his son to be educated as well. So they hired esteemed scholars to educate Francis and his other brothers.
Francis acquired knowledge constantly and thrived in his school work. One day the Duke of Montagu heard about Francis and became interested. The Duke of montagu had a radical idea. He would have Francis be taught as any other white child and compare Francis’s results to the other. Francis was an experiment now, and if he learned the same amount as the European he would prove skin color did not affect brain power.
In order for the experiment to be accurate the Duke of Montagu had to send Francis to a similar learning setting. he decided upon shipping him to England. Sponsored by the Duke of course.
Francis Williams was to undertake a rigorous path of education in the new continent. He would be taught at the highest levels of white men. The first step in this long process was a basic foundation. For Francis this was a couple years in grammar school. Following his introduction to superb learning he then proceeded onward to Cambridge university. At Cambridge he was granted access to real learning.
Montagu spent all this time, money and energy just to prove that a black man could do what a white man could do. It was a particularly interesting and brave approach at the time when blacks were strictly looked down upon.
Francis showed the world that despite your skin color, anyone in the right learning setting can thrive and create a successful life.
It is quite simple to see the connections, Francis as Octavian, The ever changing sponsors for Octavians experiment being the Duke of Montagu. They were even living at around the same time, just different places.
Citations
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