The book I have been reading is The book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. So far I have enjoyed the novel and the main character Aminata Diallo. What I like about it so far is how strong willed and courageous she is and shows great intelligence as well. My predictions for this novel is that she will be of great help to the people she is with in dealing with the hardships they are going through and she will boldly challenge what her and many others are going through.
What I have asked myself is why she is so courageous compared to the others, not that they aren't brave as well but she seems to have such a greater will to live and return home and I would like to know what the other people have experienced compared to her that makes her stand out. It could possibly just be because she is so much younger that makes her seem like that much more powerful in the reader's eyes for going through what they are.
When the author described her mother “catching” babies and Aminata learning from her I could really imagine in my head Aminata sitting there with great concentration in her eyes really soaking in what is happening. I imagine this scene well because it is an important part of Aminata’s role in the story because she is being used for intelligence and her ability to help in the birthing process of a woman's baby which in result saved her from being thrown off the boat. It also shows her connection to her mother and and her role back in her village that she is so determined to return to one day.
The feel i get from the author is someone who is very sympathetic of what happened in the past and they want the story of how brave the people who were being brought over for slavery was. I feel it is very important to them that people know what they had to go through not only by being slaves but the pure torture that was imposed on them right from the beginning to the end with no reason except a lack of acknowledgment of their humanity.
The ideology of this text could be interpreted different ways. It could be seen as the way things were seen in the time period of the novel or the ideas that we have today. I’m going to go with the ideas that we have today because that is what I believe the author is trying to get across. The idea of this novel then, is that the way blacks were treated in that time was inhuman and unacceptable by today's standards, which is crazy to believe that just so long ago it was acceptable to treat a human with such disgrace. It speaks to us today because we know from history what happened but a lot of the history we are taught is about white people and told by white people so the reader is interested and touched by what other races went through and the difference in today's ideology versus centuries ago. 
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