Olaudah Equiano in his interesting narrative is taken away from his African home and thrown into a Western world completely alien to him. Equiano is a slave for a total of ten years and strives to take on some traits and customs of Western thought. He puts a lot of effort into self-improvement, learning religion, and adopting Western mercantilism. However, Equiano retains much of its African heritage. Throughout the narrative, the author maintains his African innocence and purity of purpose; two qualities he finds sorely lacking in Europeans. This compromise leaves him in an unstable middle ground between his adapted West and his native Africa. Olaudah Equiano takes on Western ideals while maintaining many of his African values; this makes him a man associated with two cultures but a member of neither. Olaudah Equiano is exposed to Western ideas and customs during his long journey. Although he is initially frightened by this, writing "and now I was convinced that I had entered a world of evil spirits and that they were going to kill me" (755), he eventually begins to see Europeans as "men superior to us" (762). In this change in perception Equiano begins to strive to emulate his paler counterparts, To further this cause, he begins to improve himself through education having already partially mastered his adopted language around two o'clock three years after his arrival in England. He is put to school by Miss Guerins while his master's ship is in port and while in her service Equiano learns Western Christianity and is thus begun to take on the European religious character as well the new Enlightenment ideal of self-improvement. During Equiano's service... half of the paper... another leaves it somewhere between both. interesting story by Olaudah Equiano provides insight into cultural assimilation and the difficulties of such assimilation. The writer embraces several Western traits and ideals, but jealously preserves his African virtues. In doing so, however, he finds himself halfway between a full-fledged European and a displaced African. This issue of cultural identity that Equiano struggled with is still present in modern American society. The modern African American also seems to be in the process of deciding between two competing cultures and is often left somewhere in the middle becoming a victim of cultural identity just like Olaudah Equiano some 250 years ago. Works Cited Olaudah, Equiano. The interesting account of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Yassa, written by himself. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.