Essay Questions

Explain the effect of parallelism in Zong! by citing relevant examples from the poem.

In Zong 2, all the lines except the third, fourth and tenth lines, begin with the article ‘the’. This parallel structure accentuates the overarching argument in the poem. The specificity of the article, the, alludes to the reality of the happenings in Zong. Zong 4 is consistent in its message due to the use of the words ‘this’ and ‘not’. As a result of this parallelism, the poem elucidate that the loss of Africans’ lives, in Zong, was not humane then and it cannot be appropriate even in the contemporary world. Similarly, the repetition of the word ‘of’ in Zong 5 results in parallel lines. Even though the lines in the poem are predominantly fragments, their parallel structures enable result in the reader’s involvement throughout the reading.

Outline the salient ideological objective in Zong!

Zong 2 outlines the overriding objective that is underpinned in the entire book. Zong! castigates the commodification of human lives (specifically the black people). Instead of grieving the loss of human lives, the black people are commodified as ship owners use the Africans' deaths to pursue insurance indemnity as they regard them (the black people) as an insurable merchandise. The dehumanization and trivialization of Africans in Zong! raises the question: would the ship owners have acted in an equivalent manner, of commodifying human beings, if it were white people who lost their lives in Zong!