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Frederick douglass narrative analysis
Narrative life of frederick douglass
Racism in the narrative of frederick douglass
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Racial Ideologies in Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent's Narratives 4) Slavery was justified by racial ideology. Consider three texts, including one that was written by a former slave. How do the authors either replicate or refute racial ideologies common in the nineteenth century? I am going to focus on the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent as examples of a refusal of racial ideologies and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an example of replicating (although attempting to refute) racial ideologies of the day. Douglass’s Narrative and Brent’s Incidents follow them from ignorance to knowledge; knowledge and freedom gained through their own doing. I think that Stowe is in a way both trying to write an anti-slavery novel, however, I can’t see her as anti-racist because Romantic Racialism is what grounds her arguments. In all three, I am going to prove that the relationship between and the representations of the body and the mind are what either refuse or support racial ideologies of the nineteenth century. First, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative introduces the reader to a young Douglass who is ignorant in terms of book knowledge and also lacks practical life experience. He even lacks the knowledge of his own age. But the fact that Douglass is able to educate himself refutes the idea of the time that African Americans were intellectually inferior. By the end of the narrative, he is more educated than someone like Covey, one of his former masters. Kimberly Drake claims that [t]he ability to utilize language, especially written language or literacy, is also portrayed by many ex-slaves as crucial to their quest for freedom, a freedom which in large part is the ability to allow ... ... middle of paper ... ...impulse. All three of these books have really helped me to gain an understanding of what the racial ideologies of the period in which they were written were: Douglass and Brent, through their refusal of these ideologies and Stowe through her inadvertent reinforcement of them. Bibliography: Works Cited Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. L. Maria Child. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1973. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995. Drake, Kimberly. “Rewriting the American Self: Race, Gender, and Identity in the Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.” MELUS 22 (Winter 97): 91-109. MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. “’If Ever I Get to Where I Can’: The Competing Rhetorics of Social Reform in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” ATQ 2 (June 90): 135-148.
Douglass' narrative was groundbreaking because he had never been able to speak about his own horrific experiences. Douglass begins building his ethos in the opening of chapter one when he claims to not know his birthday, unlike white citizens, who know every basic fact about themselves. Beginning with this fact makes Douglass credible because the reader now knows his experiences to be true. His complex word choices and advanced sentence structures could have lead one to believe that his writing was intended to be read from the upper-middle class. It was necessary for Douglass to establish himself on a level playing field as his audience in order for his intelligence to be taken seriously.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative of his Life both endeavor to stir antislavery sentiment in predominantly white, proslavery readers. Each author uses a variety of literary tactics to persuade audiences that slavery is inhumane. Equiano uses vivid imagery and inserts personal experience to appeal to audiences, believing that a first-hand account of the varying traumas slaves encounter would affect change. Stowe relies on emotional connection between the readers and characters in her novel. By forcing her audience to have empathy for characters, thus forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of slavery, Stowe has the more effective approach to encouraging abolitionist sentiment in white readers.
Frederick Douglass. As authors, their books, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Narrative of the Life of
Douglass wrote three biographies about his life as a politician, slave, and abolitionist. However, the historical value of these works does not remain as important as the quality of the works themselves. Frederick Douglass’ writing deserves recognition in the canon of great American authors, because his work meets the chosen criteria for inclusion in a collection of important literature. Douglass influenced many famous abolitionists with his literary works, and this impact, coupled with his desire to write an expose about oppression in America, makes him a winning candidate. Although his published works, mostly autobiographies, received much acclaim from abolitionists, this paper explores the quality of Douglass’s work from a literary standpoint. This paper also details the events shaping Douglass’s impressive life and writing career. By examining the prestigious “life and times” of this black author, the reader will recognize the widespread influence of Douglass’s writing on other antislavery writers, politics, and hence, the public. In a look at his first and greatest work, Narrative of the Life, the following paper will demonstrate why Frederick Douglass deserves a place in the hall of great American writers. To fully appreciate the impact of Douglass’s autobiographies, we must examine violent period in which he lived. Douglass, born in 1818, grew up as a slave on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation in eastern Maryland. At the time, abolitionist movements started gaining speed as popular parties in the North. In the North, pro-slavery white mobs attacked black communities in retaliation for their efforts. By the time Douglass escaped from slavery, in 1838, tensions ran high among abolitionists and slaveowners. Slaves published accounts of their harrowing escapes, and their lives in slavery, mainly with the help of ghostwriters. Although abolitionists called for the total elimination of slavery in the South, racial segregation still occurred all over the United States. Blacks, freemen especially, found the task of finding a decent job overwhelming.
The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).
Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, readers grapple with the rise and creation of slavery as a racial formation but also witness the distinct features that detail its crumbling for the near future. It is a process that offers a linkage between structure and racial representation. Douglass touches base that “it was not color, but crime, not God, but man, that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery” (69). He already knows that the slave masters are the individuals who developed this categorization of race and embedded into the societal perception of today. Omi and Winant attempt to give an outline in their piece on the foundations of racial meaning. In other words, it was man who decided to develop distinct characteristics to separate individuals into inferior and superior. Douglass states that “what man can make, men can unmake” (69). In other words, Douglass does not see himself as any different than his peers and instead focuses on the theorizing of resistance in literature. The power of knowledge
Frederick Douglass’s “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave” recounts the life of Frederick Douglass as a slave on his journey to finding freedom. As a slave, he was treated as a second-rate citizen and was not taught how to be literate. Literacy is the ability to read and write. Slaves were robbed of the privilege of reading and writing and thus robbed of any educational means. Without these educational means, slaves were not allowed to grow in society and have a sense of capability within society. Instead, slaves were suppressed by the white man as property and forced to labor as the lowest part of society. Literacy is the education that separates humans from other forms of life and whites from slaves. Literacy
In order for Douglass to reach his goal of becoming a free man he thought the only way out was education. He needed to learn how to read, write, and think for himself about what slavery was. Since literacy and education were so powerful to Frederick he persevered to get himself the education he wanted. …. Douglass knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that didn’t stop him. Douglass realized the “ conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with a high hope, and
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
Despite each individual having different circumstances in which they experienced regarding the institution of slavery, both were inspired to take part in the abolitionist movement due to the injustices they witnessed. The result is two very compelling and diverse works that attack the institution of slavery and argue against the reasons the pro-slavery individuals use to justify the slavery
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Douglass who was of course a slave, not only represents an individual who was able to overcome the horrors of slavery, but also preconceived societal notions, individual pain, and tribulations. Whether it be his drive to learn by paying local boys with bread to teach him, or that when he lived with Mr. Covey he seemed to have lost his drive for personal growth; which he later regains. A sentence that strikes me in a profound manner is “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man”(Douglass, 39). Soon after this Douglass for his own well being travels into the woods against the will of Covey. Throughout the rest of the autobiography we see the growth of Douglass, who states at the end “From that time until now, I have been engaged in pleading the cause of my brethren-with what success, and with what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my labors to decide”(Douglass, 69). We see that even Douglass contemplates the fruits of his own labor and the degree of his success. Which in hindsight, I, as do many, view as being a key to the abolition of slavery, and progress of African Americans in this nation. What made him successful, though was most definitely not the situation he was born into, but the strive he had to make a better world, to better himself, and his insatiable thirst for
Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.