The themes represented in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass express deep struggles and extremes of emotion. He describes multiple facets of slavery, and how slavery corrupts those at the top and torments those at the bottom. Douglass utilizes themes of knowledge, distinctions in gender, and a pain in knowing how to gain something, but being wholly unable to. Douglass details his relationship with knowledge throughout his life; he relates his gradual escape from slavery with his growing education. Knowledge is used in his story as a pathway to gaining freedom. I relate to this theme because, in my life, I have learned that success only attainable through education. In order to be able to escape from the rules of my family, in order to fully be myself, in order to provide for myself and have a non-menial job that I enjoy, I have to educate myself as much as possible. This knowledge has prompted me to work hard to reach the highest level of happiness and freedom in my future. Frederick Douglass also employs themes of gender differentiation in terms of treatment; the women are seen as dispensable and easy to attack by the various owners observed in the book. The women, being household servants, were under constant, close criticism by their owners and masters; every “imperfection” or “mistake” would result in …show more content…
In today’s society, in my life, knowledge is a route to independence from parents and a way to reach one’s full potential. A unrelenting patriarchal system still oppresses women; women are still attacked for being too smart or too dumb, too beautiful or too ugly, too fat or too skinny, too much of a “tease “ or too much of a “prude,” etc., etc., etc. While the overarching institution has changed from slavery to an overtly subtle, constant system of judgement of all that aren’t in the
One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick Douglass also perceived racial inequalities at a very young age and notes “I do not remember ever met a slave who could tell his or her birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (13). Douglass also takes the argument of inequality one step further by making remarks upon the difference between the white and black children. Instead of accepting the difference that he is aware of even the minor details of inequalities. These descriptions of inequality are stated in the first half of the book and help us as readers realize the true “worth” of a slave. Frederick Douglass states “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There w...
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass himself is a brutally honest portrayal of slavery's dehumanizing capabilities. The style of this famous autobiography can be best described as personal, emotional, and compelling. By writing this narrative, Douglass wants his audience to understand him. He does this by speaking informally like a person would when writing a letter or telling a story to a friend. By clearly establishing his credibility and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices to argue for the immorality of slavery.
Frederick Douglass was an enslaved person and was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He had no knowledge of his accurate age like most of the enslaved people. He believed that his father was a white man, and he grew up with his grandmother. Douglass and his mother were separated when he was young, which was also common in the lives of the enslaved people. This concept of separation was used as a weapon to gain control of the enslaved people. In short, despite the obstacles he had to endure, he was able to gain an education and fight for his freedom in any means necessary.
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
Slave owners in the South were some of the most cruel and inhumane human beings out there. They used many tactics to maintain a prosperous system of slavery amongst them. Like many, Frederick Douglass was born a slave. Deprived of as much as possible, Douglass knew not much more than his place of birth. Masters were encouraged to dispossess slaves of any knowledge and several of them did not know their birthdays or other personal details of themselves. The purpose of this was to keep slaves as misinformed of anything other than labor as possible. Slave owners knew the dangers that would upraise if slaves became literate and brave enough to fight for freedom.
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.
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than that of an animal. Not only were they valued as an animal, fed like an animal, and beaten like an animal, but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was just as much of a man as his master. The open mentality a slave had was ...
Narrating these stories informs readers not familiar with slavery a clear idea on how slaves lived and were treated. The novel brings a strong political message to our society. If Douglass explains to people what slavery was about, they would be influenced to make a change. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the story of Frederick Douglass from the time he was born a slave to the time of his escape to freedom. Through years of physical abuse and assault, Douglass overcame these obstacles to become an advocate against
In his narrative, Douglass layers the many brutal, cruel, inhumane, and true components of slavery in his life, underlying each story with a political motive and relation. This method of writing was for his audience removed from slavery, those ignorant of slavery, uninformed, misunderstood, and those who were fortunate to have freedom. Douglass illustrates living conditions, experiences, tragedies, and struggles to great depths. Everywhere, African Americans escaped the binds of slavery due to Frederick Douglass' determination. He revolutionized America, being one of the greatest leaders of the abolition, being the reason for so many freed lives, and leading to the complete abolition and illegality of slavery in America.
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.
In chapter one of Fredrick Douglas he talks about how his life was working as a slave on his first masters farm and how he was taken away from his family. In the slave girl in California it was about a girl named shyima who`s mother gave her to the Abraham family in Egypt to help pay for their needs. The Abrahams took her back to california and forced her into labor and treated her very badly not feeding her a lot and forced her to be a maid for the family. she was finally freed from her labor when a neighbor caught wind of what was going on and called the police and they arrested the Abrahams and Shyima got her freedom back. After she was freed she lived the rest of her life the way she wanted to live not the way someone wanted her to live.
Michael Douglas is actually the eldest of Kirk Douglas' four children. Being a son of a superstar, and being a superstar yourself, would typically mean that you have the world and YOU are the world, right? But unfortunately, not all superstars or A-listers feel that way. There are hidden feelings, challenges and even enemies that these people had to endure. One of these unfortunate A-listers who have to experience all of these is Michael Douglas, himself.
Despite society’s conception on individuals, education provides a resolution to change the assumed identity given to them. Hundreds of years ago, social status was genuinely set in stone; noble families stayed in power while workers and peasants struggled to get by. As more and more advancements in fields of studies were published, knowledge became the deciding factor to change where an individual stood in society. As societies progressed with time, education gradually went hand in hand with success which caused many people to focus on their knowledge of the world. As slavery became common in the United States, slaves were expected to be uneducated and remain slaves for the remainder of their lives. However, Frederick Douglass used education to defy his assumed identity; he broke the stereotype and created a new name for himself. At a young age, Douglass realized “the pathway from slavery to freedom” was in fact education; the knowledge he craved so much was what separated him from freemen. With the recognition of the solution, Douglass was able to educate himself and become one of the most successful black men in history. Such cases of defying social assumptions can still be seen to this day. Stereotypes often set limitations on what an individual can accomplish, pointing fingers stating...