Frederick Douglass Point Of View Analysis

1965 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The narrative of the life of frederick douglass analysis

Point of view
The point of view provided in The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is mainly in the form of first person. Due to the fact that the novel is written by Frederick Douglass himself, he chose to write out his life points in a first person style. This means, of course, that the majority of the story is from his perspective. He chooses to use words such as I, we, or us, very commonly. There are short sections in which he speaks about things he has heard of or knows from other sources, and these may or may not be written in a first person manor.

Characterization The main character, and the author, Frederick Douglass, is a very brilliant and kind hearted person. Frederick, being both the narrator and main character, doesn’t …show more content…

I ended up finding it to be rather interesting to read and came out with inspiration for stories of my own. That being said, I would like to point out the fact that if I had not been reading this novel with the sound of heavy metal playing in my earbuds, I would most likely have been lulled to sleep by its text. Personally, I find this is a great way to read a story which may have a more dull sense to it (Don't worry, I did read everything, the music was in no way hindering my ability to understand and appreciate the text at hand. All it did was provide a pace in which I could follow when reading that livened up the tone.). The writing was esquisiantly articulated and enthralling to engage. There are beautifully thrilling and moving moments scattered throughout the book, such as when one of his slave owners, mr. Covey, tried to attack him, thus from that came one of my favorite quotes from this novel, “... at this moment-- from whence came the spirit I don’t know -- I resolved to fight; and as I did so, I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf” (42). He shows with his words true strength and a mighty sense of justice. This quote shows his stern feeling towards those who dish out pain and suffering to their fellow man and show his commitment to protest their cruel and unjust acts. Other moments are more meaningful and moving, providing a more …show more content…

PBS. Web. 05 May 2016.
"AfricaResource The Place for Africa on the Net." Willie Lynch: A Brutal Guide to Breaking the Enslaved African. Web. 05 May 2016.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Slavery Quotes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 May 2016.
"Slaves Are Prohibited to Read and Write by Law | North Carolina Law (1830-31)." Slaves Are Prohibited to Read and Write by Law | North Carolina Law (1830-31). Web. 05 May 2016.

Theme The theme of this topic is rather straightforward. More than multiple times is it mention throughout the novel, “No one person should forbidden the rights of another”. While it takes form in many ways, I feel this to be the most common idea. Fredericks goes on many rants and lectures about how it was unfair that he should not know his birthday and cruel to be forbidden his mother's embrace. When Frederick eventually gained his freedom, he made many contributions to the ending of slavery, but it still took many many years for everyone to have equal rights. Even when they say that people are being treated equally, it may not be true. Sadly, because of the world we live in, it is very challenging to truly end things like prejudice and sexism. While slavery may have come to an end, its concepts of equality still linger on. True, they have become few and far between, but threads of it remain even to this day. The only way to truly end something as monstrous as slavery, is to band together

Show More
Related

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Syntax Analysis

    310 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Trickery in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

    1878 Words  | 4 Pages

    Piano, Doreen. “Critical Essay on “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself”.” Nonfiction Classics for Students, Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Nonfiction Works, 2001. Literature Resource Center. 24 April, 2014. .

    Read More

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Chapter 9 Analysis

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, provides Americans with a firsthand look into slavery prior to the Civil War. Douglass, born a slave early into the nineteenth century, encounters and survives the task of living as a slave. Within the ninth chapter of his life, an argument arises that claims Southern Christianity differs immensely from its Northern counterpart. A majority of Christians in non-slaveholding states at the time believed that Christian slaveholders were kinder after they converted, Douglass worked to invalidate this claim. In chapter nine, the ingenious use of dispassionate tone and allusion throughout the passages support the claim that a simple conversion to Christianity only gives justification to cruel southern slaveholders.

    Read More

  • Melville vs Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slave rebellions are the common topic of the two stories. Melville plays with the anxiety whites had of such and Douglass of its possibility to elevate slaves out of their misery. If paraphrased, the end of chapter X in Douglass’s Narrative serves as a perfect illustration of this: Douglass describes his Master Hugh seizing the money Douglass had earned; “not because he [Hugh] earned it, - not because he had any hand in earning it … but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up.” Exchange ‘money’ with ‘liberty’ and Babo’s right to revolution as that “of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas”, becomes as right as the white man’s enslavement of blacks. In understanding this, Babo turns into a true hero – albeit a literate one – on a level with Nat Turner, Madison Washington and others. His quest for freedom and his struggle to achieve it deserves to be remembered, just as Douglass is remembered today.

    Read More

  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: The Formation of Identity

    2136 Words  | 5 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Deborah E. McDowell “In the First Place: Making Frederick Douglass and the Afro-American Narrative Tradition”

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass And Frederick Douglass Analysis

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. A. A. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Frederick Douglass Narrative

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frederick Douglass was brought from Africa as a baby to the U.S. to become a slave during the 17th century. In his narrative book “Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass,” he used rhetoric to provoke reader’s emotions, and inspiration of hope when everything isn’t good. Douglass used the rhetoric appeal pathos to show people how horrible he was treated as a slave, and how he kept up his motivation about becoming free from slavery. In addition, he also used pathos so effective that readers can see his experiences in front of themselves.

    Read More

  • Key Arguments in "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay on Literacy in African-American Literature

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: New American Library, 1987. 243-331.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this narrative, Douglass describes his life as a slave in ways that is brutalizing and dehumanizing. He wants his readers to understand that concept. By doing this, Douglass writes, “I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb” (416). Douglass uses diction such as seized, aching, extreme dizziness, and trembled to help create a picture of the pain he had felt during his experiences of being a slave for Mr. Covey. Another example is when he writes, “I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell” (416-17). Words like scarce, savage, and staggered place imagery into the reader’s minds of what he went through as a slave. One other way that Douglass shows how his words emphasize the message is when he writes, “The blood was yet oozing from the wound on my head. For a time I thought I should bleed to death; and think now that I should have done so, but that the blood so matted my hair as to stop the w...

    Read More

  • Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis

    803 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society is so deceivable into believing that what is accepted by society is also correct and reasonable. One would not usually question the humanity of customs if one benefits in return. Frederick Douglass wrote The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a way to depict the development of a dehumanized slave progressing into a free man. Frederick Douglass did not start to reconstruct his own self identity until he broke the bindings of being ignorant which his masters placed upon him.

    Read More

  • Frederick Douglass Bildungsroman Analysis

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    After analyzing these significant events that had happened in Douglass life, the overall purpose of writing this autobiography was not to explain to people how he achieved freedom but to showcase how different scenarios that had occurred at these plantations did not define him as a person but shaped him into the person he had become. Slavery was something that broke the spirit of people mentally, physically, and emotionally that may have caused to them to not seek hope in a better outcome of life. Douglass was able to become a free slave and accomplished man after he enslavement. He never hindered on the fact that he was once a slaved but used these events to his benefit to make a successful career. Secondly, Fredrick Douglass narrative depicts that although terrible things happened on these plantations, he wanted readers to be able to read all the violence that occurred to show them how real and horrifying slavery was.

    Read More

More about Frederick Douglass Point Of View Analysis

Open Document