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One of the most famous works on the topic of slavery is the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Fredrick Douglass. Written in 1845, this work has not lost its relevance. In fact, many modern scholars are trying to find something new and interesting in this work, in particular with respect to modern realities. I have found a few articles, each of which is addressing a particular aspect of this work. The value of the articles is the fact that they give me a great opportunity to understand not only this work, but also the writer's position as a whole. The main feature of the five articles is that they analyze Douglass’s ideas on freedom, slavery, and the role of Christianity as the dominant ideology.
Brewton, Vince.
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“Bold Defiance Took Its Place’-‘Respect’ and Self-Making in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures 58.3-4 (2005): 703-17. Print. One of the most important and interesting themes is Douglass’s identity as it is represented in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Brewton believes that it is necessary to talk about the transformation of Douglass’s identity in the Narrative. This transformation takes place against the backdrop of the struggle between the two types of identities - Douglass's identity as a slave and the identity of free white slaveholders. The main idea suggests that the development of Douglass’s self-esteem is the result of the opposition between his personal qualities and those of his slaveholders, which within the Christian tradition are seen as full of evil and violence. This article is extremely important for my research as it provides an interesting and original approach to the study of the characteristics of Douglass’s identity as it is presented in the Narrative.
The author gives well-founded conclusions as they are based on a thorough analysis of the work of the writer. These findings have given me a chance to see the dynamics of Douglass’s identity under the influence of various factors, including the opposition between the two types of identity - the identity of a slave and the identity of a free man.
Burns, Mark K. “A Slave in Form but Not in Fact’: Subversive Humor and the Rhetoric of Irony in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Studies in American Humor 3.12 (2005): 83-96. Print.
It may seem that the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the autobiographical story, which has nothing to do with humor and irony; however, according to the author of the article, irony is extremely important for the writer because it helps him to express his personal attitude to various issues and events. Using irony, Douglass in particular, has the opportunity to express his critical attitude to the Christian beliefs while avoiding an official contradiction with the Christian
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ideology. I enjoy this article for several reasons. First, the author provides a detailed textual analysis of Douglass's Narrative. This approach allows him to get reliable conclusions and make his approach objective. In addition, the value of this article is in the way it allows me to understand the personal characteristics of Douglass, who was a person capable of rising above the white hegemony by means of text. Marrs, Cody. “Fredrick Douglass in 1848.” American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 85.3 (2013): 447-473. Print. Cody Marrs analyzes a number of Douglass’s works and concludes that many of them are imbued with the spirit of transnationalism. The author connects this phenomenon with the revolution of 1848, which had a significant impact on the formation of Douglass’s social and political philosophy. Marrs suggests that Douglass views the struggle for freedom as a global phenomenon that eliminates the boundaries between the states and provides a single global space. In my opinion, the validity of the ideas outlined in this article is obvious. Marrs analyzes a number of Douglass’s works that eventually allow him to come to these conclusions. This article has value in the sense that it allows me to see Douglass's Narrative in its global scale as a result of the personal experience of the writer. In this regard, this article is very helpful for me. It is a great addition to my other sources as it regards the idea of the struggle against slavery in its global transnational form. Newman, Lance. “Free Soil and the Abolitionist Forests of Frederick Douglass's 'The Heroic Slave'” American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 81.1 (2009): 127-152. Print. In his article, Lance Newman analyzes the transformation of Douglass's ideas about the role of nature in the struggle against slavery.
For this purpose, he compares The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with The Heroic Slave. The author reveals the main difference between the works is their representations of nature. The first work shows the author's negative attitude toward nature, in which he perceives it as a serious obstacle to the freedom. In turn, The Heroic Slave reflects other political ideas of the writer and focuses on the fact that nature and access to the land can be a source of inspiration in the struggle against
slavery. The value of this article is found in the way it gives me useful information about the transformation of Douglass’s social and political views. The comparative analysis of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Heroic Slave allows me to see the connection between the writer's views and different social and political movements. Peyser, Thomas. “The Attack on Christianity in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Explicator 69.2 (2011): 86-89. Print. According to the author, in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass demonstrates his critical positions towards Christianity. The writer believes that Douglass’s criticism is due to the fact that the phenomenon of slavery has received a detailed form in Christianity because Christian morality is a slave morality that encourages people to turn the other cheek. Despite the fact that Douglass was trying to get the attention of the Christian audience, his suspicions against Christianity become apparent as a result of careful analysis of his famous work. This article is of particular interest in that it allows me to see the interpretation of Christianity in the framework of Douglass' work. Peyser offers his well-reasoned approach by analyzing the famous text of this writer. I have had the opportunity to view Douglass's critical approach to Christianity as a religion that is able to take the form of a violent ideology. This article allows me to see the features of Douglass's social and political philosophy, which protests against all forms of oppression of people, including religious ones.
Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, about the devastation associated with slavery and the destruction from which comes desperation. Douglass intends to summon upon the guilt and empathy of his white audience by giving an account from which the reader is able to coax up a new perspective on the dreadful oppression. Seen especially in the third paragraph where Douglass provides a series of rhetorical devices including: apostrophe, anaphora, personification, exemplum, and epithet in his sorrowful bellowing to passing ships.
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
Analysis of “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”: Written by Aaron Wright and Nichole Smith
In using descriptions of slave life, ironic situations, and general frankness, Douglass is appealing to the emotions of his audience. Douglass is letting people know of the terrors of slavery by touching their emotions. He gets them motivated by being interesting and then builds upon this by describing his life in simple terms that all humans can relate to.
Frederick Douglass uses the rhetorical appeal, ethos, in two specific ways: to provide the credence of his statements and to identify himself to the reader. Douglass uses his writing skills to provide a familiar perception to which his readers are accustomed. He does not provide exact dates to accompany his story, because slaves back then were kept ignorant, as Douglass states, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it” (Douglass 19). Our culture thrives on important dates such as, someone’s birthday, a holiday, or an anniversary, etc., and Douglass was blind to all of these events. He identifies himself as a normal human being, when in fact, he has had what seems like to us, a completely
In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, an African American male describes his day as a slave and what he has become from the experience. Douglass writes this story to make readers understand that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that he still has intellectual ability even though he is a slave. In the story, these messages are shown frequently through the diction of Frederick Douglass.
Douglass uses irony to bring a point across to his audience, with the recounting of his own heritage. He explains that his separation after birth from his mother, a slave, and a majority of his foul treatment is likely because his white father feels a need to destroy the lives of his bastard children in order to reassert devotion to
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
For example, he explains to the reader that he would carry loaves of bread when sent on errands so that he could bargain with the local children for a reading or writing lesson. He admits "I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 101). This statement is ironic because Douglass himself was in a worse position, but instead, even as a 12-year-old Douglas acknowledges what little advantages he does have. Another example of irony is presented later in the essay, when Douglass is explaining his mental struggle, long after successfully learning how to read and write. He refers to his literacy as his "wretched condition" and even tells the reader "I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing" (Douglass 103). This statement is relevant because although Douglass 's fame in literary history, and that he is feeling burdened by this. This adds to the overall resolution of the essay because it adds a new element of mental discomfort instead of the physical and social discomfort associated with
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.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Stone, Albert. “Identity and Art in Frederick Douglass’s ‘Narrative’.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Volume 7. Ed. Paula Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990. 134-137.
In this final research analysis, I will be doing a comparison between the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” to show how both Douglass and Rowlandson use a great deal of person strength and faith in God to endure their life and ultimately gain their freedom.
For starters, Douglass uses pathos to get his point across. He uses stories in the bible to make his audience understand what he is trying to say. He especially used the story of Babylon to convey his point of how does Americans
In this book, Douglass narrated the life of a slave in the United States into finer details. This paper will give a description of life a slave in the United States was living, as narrated through the experiences of Fredrick Douglass.