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The Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson is a log of events form a slave ship authored by the main character, Rutherford Calhoun. Our narrator, Calhoun, recalls the tale of a voyage half way around the world, a six-month transitional period which thoroughly reconstructs his previous life-style. His life-style of survival, crime and ill-sincerity transforms him into a domesticated man who has discovered, and can now express, genuine feelings of love. Examining and comparing his initial …

…Her eyes went quiet, closing as if on a vision of her and me at the altar. "My father, you know, was a little like you, Rutherford, or at least my aunties say he was. He stayed in Scolley Square or in the pubs, looking for himself in rum and loose women until he met a woman of character - I mean my mother - who brought out his better instincts." (8) This paragraph alone cont