...The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass an American Slave The tone of this book is cool and reserved yet enraged and overly emotional. How can he’s tone be both cool yet emotional? Overly emotional biographies are not usually considered reliable or accurate. However, since the author wants to convince us the readers, that what he’s saying is truth and accurate he tries to contain his anger about slavery, yet at the same time the reader knows that Douglass is really angry about slavery and he wants us to be angry as well. Though he mostly keeps in anger under control, every once in awhile he lets the reader know how he really feels In the book Douglass gives an emotional speech when he looks out at the Chesapeake Bay and wishes he could be as...
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...Slavery was a very disturbing action that existed in America’s history. African Americans were treated terribly during this time because of things such as racism, discrimination, and prejudice. They were treated as if they were not even human beings. One specific account that is available regarding slavery in the 1800s is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This book, published in 1845, is an autobiography that gives a vivid description of the struggles Frederick Douglass faced as a slave in America. The first thing that Frederick Douglass had to face was prejudice. Douglass was automatically viewed differently in his time simply because of the color of his skin. The Prejudice Personality is also known as “Authoritarian Personality.” An example of someone with this type of personality is Mr. Austin Gore, Douglass’s overseer at one time. He thought that he automatically had a power over the slaves because he was a white man. He judged the slaves as worthless and stupid before ever knowing the facts. Little did he know that Douglass was so smart that he would later write a book, let alone learn to read and write. This predisposed judgment is an example of someone with the Prejudice Personality. Prejudice is an attitude, however and therefore can be changed or eliminated. This is not an easy task though. In order to ever make a social change, as in the case of slavery, an attitude change must come first. According to Functional theorist...
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...Although Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
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...Use Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave to examine identity. From its first page, The ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas’ is set up as an exploration of Identity; The main purpose of the novel being to establish the truth of Frederick Douglass’s public identity and ‘set [himself] right before the public in the United States’ (Blassingame, 1979, p. 251). In fact, the text was described by Albert Stone as the “first native American autobiography to create a black identity in a style and form adequate to the pressures of historical black experience” (Stone, 1973, p. 213). As Kimberly Drake explains, “Slaves' (or more accurately, ex-slaves') autobiographies record the process in which the ex-slave writes his or her self into an existence recognized by dominant American society. The author portrays the way he or she overcomes the slaveholding society's continuing attempts to eradicate his or her identity; simultaneously, s/he rewrites that identity to fit the dominant culture's norms, despite the fact that these norms tend to conflict with his/her own experiences during and after slavery. These autobiographies thus provide dramatic models of the textual construction and development of "American" identity”. (Drake, 1997) In essence, Drake argues that Douglass has used his ‘Narrative’ to chronicle the death and consequent rebirth of his identity. The novel uses language, pacing and symbolism to establish Douglass’s sense of...
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...Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Emancipated slave turned distinguished scholar, Frederick Douglass, uses his book Narratives of the Life of an American Slave to narrate the struggles that he went through as a slave under one of his owners, referred to as “my mistress”. Douglass uses this book to enlighten the American people about the horrors and the sheer inhumanity of slavery. In this book, written before the Civil War, he accurately represents what happened to slaves to those who weren’t accustomed to the horrors of slavery, the Northerners. He tried to convey the struggles of slavery to the people of the North to try to get them to help those agonizing in the South. Douglass accomplishes this goal by using antithetical ideas, by using metaphor and by using diction that was only expected of the upper class. Douglass begins his book by emphasizing the negative effect of slavery on the slave-owner. He explores these negative effects by discussing how being a slave owner caused his mistress to change from a “lamblike disposition to a tiger-like fierceness (line 14-15).” This demonstrates how slavery can corrupt how a person thinks and acts. Although the shift in this sentence was very apparent, Douglass implicitly discusses this shift throughout the passage by speaking of his mistress’ kind heartedness prior to owning slaves, to her ruthless behavior after owning slaves. According to Douglass, this sudden shift of behavior can be attributed to the power she gained...
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...Fredrick Douglass final essay Subpoint 4: The Christianity of the slaveholders is hypocritical and used to justify their actions. There are two forms of Christianity represented in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and each are described and function differently throughout the text. Based on Douglass’ personal recollections and thoughts in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there are both real and false versions of religion and generally, the real or “true” form of Christianity is practiced by himself as well as some whites who are opposed to slavery. The false form of religion, or what the author explained in one of the important quotes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, “the hypocritical Christianity of this land” (95) is practiced by whites, most notably Mr. Covey, and is a complete bastardization of the true ideals behind genuine Christian thought. Through his discussions of religion that are interspersed throughout The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader gets the sense that slavery and true Christianity are opposing forces and one cannot be present while the other exists. Not only is the simultaneous existence of the true version Christianity with slavery impossible, it appears that even if real Christianity does exist in a pure form, the introduction of slavery corrupts it inevitably and...
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...The preamble to the Declaration of Independence reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal” with one huge unwritten disclaimer, “except African Americans”. Sarcastically written, this doctrine inspired many activists and abolitionists during that era to fight for freedom and equality for all. Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth were two of the most prominent figures of the abolitionist movement in 19th-century America. Their speeches, “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” by Federick Douglass and “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth, are iconic speeches that continue to resonate with audiences today. Both speeches influence their perspective on equality for African Americans through rhetorical appeals and devices. Truth successfully gains the empathy of...
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...Ernest,Holland Mr.Yoder Eng.lll 1. Odd 12 March Feb.20 2018 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents an insight into the power imbalance between a slave and a slaveholder. In this account, Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave but also the owner. The toxic irresponsible power that the masters hold has a dehumanizing effect on the way they live their lives. This vast amount of control in the hands of one person destroys the good-natured and finest feelings turning them into those of a evil source. With this theme Douglass completes his important visual of slavery as unnatural for all involved. Douglass explains normal action patterns of slaveholders to picture the damaging influences of slavery. Douglass...
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...Research Paper) Determining the Sources of Two “Isms”: Racism and Sexism (225 points) Due Dates: See Syllabus Submission Requirements: Please remember to submit a hard copy of your essay in class, attaching to it your peer reviews. Also submit an electronic copy through TurnItIn (see link on Canvas). Length: 7-10 pages (not including the Annotated Bibliography) Annotated Bibliography Component: Instead of a Works Cited, you will include an Annotated Bibliography with your research paper (worth 25 pts. of your total score). Readings: • “Sex and Temperament,” Margaret Mead • “Masculinity,” Germaine Greer • Selection from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave • Any previously assigned reading relevant to your topic • Sample causal analysis essay (title TBA) Research Requirement: Please use at least seven (7) but no more than ten (10) secondary sources. You must use at least one of each of the following source types: a book, an article from a scholarly journal, a newspaper article, and a magazine article. You must use at least two relevant assigned World of Idea reading, which will count toward the 7-source minimum. Furthermore, while you may use more than one website, only one website will count toward the 7-source minimum. In other words, you must incorporate research from the following source types into your paper: 1. A book 2. A scholarly journal article 3. A newspaper article 4. A...
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...weeks of intense but fun time learning about American Literature. There were some awesome topics, essays and readings that were my favorites. However, there were also some few topics that even though were interesting to read were my least favorite. The body of this essay is going to be talking about my three favorite as well as my three least topic, essays, forums and reading throughout the course. My first is Anti-Slavery and Slave Narratives in week seven forum, some of the challenges Linda Brent faced while she lived under Flint. While reading, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” it actually made me feel very sad for this...
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...Analysis of Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative David W. Blight is a professor, who teaches as of November 2, 2015 American History at Yale University. Blight obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1985 with a thesis titled “Keeping Faith in Jubilee : Fredrick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War.”Before Yale University, he taught at Amherst College for thirteen years. He has wrote many annotated editions on slavery and as of late, he is working on another biography of Fredrick Douglass.He has received a handful of awards, these include: Lincoln Prize,Bancroft Prize,Fredrick Douglass Prize, Merle Curti award and James A. Rawley prize. Anyhow The introduction by David Blight was very well constructed and It would’ve helped if...
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...Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Advanced Placement English III First Six Weeks – Introductory Activities: ▪ Class rules, expectations, procedures ▪ Students review patterns of writing, which they will imitate throughout the course: reflection, narration and description, critical analysis, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, and persuasion and argument. ▪ Students review annotation acronyms, how to do a close reading, literary elements and rhetorical devices. Students also review the SOAPSTONE (subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, tone, organization, narrative style and evidence) strategy for use in analyzing prose and visual texts along with three of the five cannons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement and style. ▪ Students learn the format of the AP test, essay rubric and essay structure. ▪ Students take a full-length AP test for comparison purposes in the spring. Reading: The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne Writing: Answer the following question in one paragraph. Use quotes from the novel as evidence. Some readers believe that the elaborate decoration that Hester embroiders on the scarlet letter indicates her rejection of the community’s view of her act. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your position using evidence from the text. (test grade) Writing: Write a well-developed essay addressing the following prompt. Document all sources using MLA citation. Compare Hester to a modern...
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...English 200 Argumentative Synthesis DeAloia Length: 3—4 pages, formatted according to MLA style Audience: College-level reader familiar with the work of Frederick Douglass and of Erich Fromm at a general level Purpose: In this assignment you will use three skills fundamental to academic writing—summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing. These skills will also help begin to build our theme, the tensions and complexities involved in the struggle between free will and obedience. Points: 100 Due Dates: 11:00 p.m., February 10: Send thesis paragraph & outline of rough draft—as a Word document formatted according to MLA style*—to instructor via UD email attachment Optional: on your own and as you wish, arrange to exchange rough drafts with a peer for feedback via Isidore Chat, visit the Write Place, and/or visit DeAloia during office hours with your questions* 11:00 p.m., February 12: Instructor provides feedback on thesis paragraphs & outlines of rough drafts via UD email attachment 11:00 p.m., February 14**: As an attachment in Word, submit final draft of Argumentative Synthesis to Isidore Assignments, “Argumentative Synthesis” *NOTE: For additional information on how to prepare...
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...January 30, 2011 HIS 325: African American History Civil War and Slavery The decade of 1850s was a very fateful and turbulent time in the US history. This is when the seeds of the US Civil War began due to the North and the South disagreeing on the status of the slaves and the idea of slavery. The South had many plantations that were run by the slaves and the North was in favor of abolishing slavery. The South knew that if slavery was abolished, they would stand to lose a lot as they would have to pay their farmers instead of them being their slaves. The North was more industrialized and it really did not have much need for slaves and slavery. It is perhaps most interesting to note that slavery had a very direct relation with the Civil War as one of the root causes for the start of the war was because of slavery. Slavery was introduced in the America during the early colonial times and the American Revolution had established that all men should be equal. There was a lot of debate amongst the Americans and the North and the South came across a rift when it came to the ideas regarding slavery. The South had more plantations and needed more workers and this is why they favored slavery. The North had different ideas and they wanted the freedom of the slaves. This caused a rift and was the cause of the Civil War between the North and the South. The South really needed the slaves to work on their plantations. They...
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...G U I D E T E A C H E R’S A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE BY SOLOMON NORTHUP bY Jeanne M. McGlInn anD JaMes e. McGlInn 2 A Teacher’s Guide to Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup Table of Contents SYNOPSIS......................................................................................................................................3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR...............................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY GUIDE............................................................................3 MEETING COMMON CORE STANDARDS.............................................................3 THE SLAVE NARRATIVE GENRE...............................................................................3 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW..........................................................................................................4 DURING READING.....................................................................................................................6 SYNTHESIZING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS.......................................................................9 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES.......................................................................................................9 ACTIVITIES FOR USING THE FILM ADAPTATION........................................................ 11 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.....................................................................................
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