...The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave Written by himself Throughout its autobiography, Douglass narrates his life as a slave, from his birth, in 1818, in a plantation of Maryland, to his evasion in 1838, which allowed him to take refuge in the North of the United States. He quickly became there a figure eminent and respected by the abolitionist movement to which he dedicated then all his energies. At first, we shall focus on the inhuman conditions from which Douglass suffered. Then we shall redraw the road he took towards freedom. We shall finally analyze how Douglass criticizes various institutions. The author makes us go right to the heart of the absolute horror of the institution of slavery. Throughout his personal experience, Frederick Douglass counts us the story of thousands of other slaves who were subjected to the same conditions under the influence of the white slaveholders in the southern plantations. Thus, this account illustrates how these human beings were condemned to a terrible tragedy that was inherent to their color. Being black justified their entrance to a process of dehumanization. From his youngest age, Douglass suffered from identity issue. He expressed his disorientation due to not knowing his father or his date of birth[1]. He was also deprived from experiencing the protection and the love that a family should bring. Indeed, he was separated from his mother at the age of one and in spite of his blood relationship...
Words: 1690 - Pages: 7
...violence always has a meaning behind it. This essay is going to compare how the titles The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass , an American Slave and The Crucible can relate to violence on how it is described in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas E. Foster, he explains how violence has a variety of ways to be expressed as well as many meanings to be understood. He states , “ It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent.” These describe in literature why violence is a key part of the story. Violence in literature always has a meaning never usually you will find it meaningless. Foster states , “Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...tree. The punishment of that would be severely harsh whippings (David Blight, editor Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 13). Old Barney is the father slave to young barney which is the son slave. Old Barney’s job description is to care for the houses and make the farm look more acceptable. Old Barney was treated poorly by his slave masters. According to the...
Words: 1349 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 1647 - Pages: 7
...Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass serves as an essential piece of literature that has, and continues, to contribute to history. Douglass’ narrative allows the reader to empathize with him on a human level, exposing the reader to his everyday circumstances and emotions, rather than simply listing off historical facts about slavery. It is commonly known that slavery existed, that millions of Africans were shipped to the United States and other countries around the world, that they were whipped and tortured and forced to provide free labor, and that millions of them died do to the harsh conditions they endured. This information is taught in elementary schools across the nation and is occasionally revisited in junior high and high school, and then again if the person makes it to college. What typically is not taught or touched on, though, is the mental and emotional struggle the slaves endured. Because slavery is no longer prominent and that generation has passed, it is very difficult to dig deeper into what actually occurred during the time period in order to reach a level of empathy that perceives slavery as something more than just a historical fact. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass serves as a fundamental primary source that pulls the reader into the everyday life of a slave and allows them to go beyond history to focus on the human foreground of the narrative. Douglass’ first person point of view is what makes...
Words: 1245 - Pages: 5
...Paine in My….Douglass? According to Frederick Douglass, a nineteenth-century northern slave, “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” Thomas Paine, a rebellious eighteenth-century Englishman, finishes and furthermore expands this thought, saying that “those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” While both of these men grew up in separate worlds, miles and years apart, their idealisms and life missions are very much alike. This is evident through the investigation of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Frederick Douglass is the...
Words: 1944 - Pages: 8
...Jared Page Mrs. Justeson English 3A 28 January, 2017 Slavery Literature Reflects Slave Life Slavery literature reflects the life of freed or escaped slaves. Slavery literature shows what it was like to be a slave. Some slaves when they were freed or when they escaped wrote about their life and what their life was like as a slave. Two great writers that wrote about their life as a slave after they escaped slavery were Harriet Ann Jacobs and Frederick Douglass (biography.com, 2014). Harriet Ann Jacobs wrote an autobiographical novel called,“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (biography.com, 2014). Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography called,“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” (biography.com, 2016). Harriet...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...Although throughout the Narrative, Frederick Douglass has a tendency to skip around often and does not always follow a completely chronological ordering, the work begins with his childhood. Frederick Douglass gives a summary of how he, like many other slave children, has no idea when his birthday is but as far he can guess it must have been around 1818. He was separated from his mother right after he was born (which he imagines was because they did not want the bonds of family to develop naturally between families) but recalls how sometimes she would walk at night from a neighboring plantation to sleep with him. As this important part of this summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” makes clear, he tells the reader that she died but because of his lack of connection with her the news did not have much of an impact on him. All Frederick Douglass knows about his father is that he is a white man based on his light skin tone and rumors he’s heard to confirm it. Frederick Douglass then gives the reader a brutal short summary of that the rape of female slaves by their white masters actually benefits slavery because by law the products of the rape become slaves themselves. When you’re reading this analysis and summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and throughout the text itself, you should notice the way Douglass makes reference not just to the cruelty of slavery as an institution, but also how he shows the way it has become institutionalized through...
Words: 2037 - Pages: 9
...controversial issue due to the amount of decades it has been around, and many other reasons. The main reason why education and individual freedom has become controversial is because of the accessibility that people have towards the two. Some people don’t have access to the two due to the economic shortages of their location, and many other because of the living conditions they are in. In Frederick Douglass’s, “The Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass An American Slave”, Douglass believes that with out the proper education a person does not have complete freedom. Just as Douglass believes, Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “The Purpose of Education”, emphasizes mainly on how he believes that with out the proper education, a person can not be completely free because a person needs to be able to use his or her education in the proper manner. Both education and freedom are related to each other due to the idea that a human being must be able to acquire education, and must use the education acquired in the most successful manner, in order to be free. As Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass feel, I also believe that having education plays an extreme role when it comes to individual freedom, because I feel that the more education that I human being has, the more freedom...
Words: 921 - Pages: 4
...Essay 1 Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two authors with very similar backgrounds. Both Douglass and Jacobs illustrate the tension involving being African American in a time where slaves did not have any rights, and when they were treated like property instead of a humans. Each of the slaves had different experiences with slavery, but one thing in common: share their accounts through autobiography on how slavery greatly changed their lives. The experiences, memories and treatment in any situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, were both written during the same time period. Both authors go into many aspects regarding the cruelty of slavery, but they still had their differences. During each of the author’s childhood they explain how it was for them. When Harriet was growing up in her, she was shielded from slavery. Her Father was accomplished carpenter, whose wish was to someday buy his children. “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise…” On the other hand Fredrick childhood was the opposite. Fredrick was born to a slave mother and an undisclosed white man. He did not know his age growing up he had to make educational guesses. ”I have no...
Words: 577 - Pages: 3
... For slaves, there was almost no time for happiness. A writer that describes all that he/she had to go through during his/hers life time, explains every single detail because they remember what they felt at that moment, how it felt, the smell, the light, the thoughts, everything. Slaves suffered too much, until they said “enough”. As black slaves, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have a lot of common because of the symbolism they used, the theme of how they describe slavery, and the literacy scene in how they did something everyone thought was impossible. For both, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, the symbolism of the word “slave” had a deeper meaning than just a word. In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave” is written, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, change to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass). In this quote, Douglass is describing how the person who bought him for slave changed from being a good person to becoming a demon. The power that corrupts this person which in the story is Mrs. Auld makes her become a bad person by wanting to have control over the slave. This is one example of the symbolism of how Douglass used the transformation of a good person to bad by owning a slave. In “Incidents...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...Being a slave has to be one of the worst experiences to go through.Your slave masters will act like they care about you , even other slaves couldn’t trust each other which is disappointing.Getting whipped every week just because your slave master feels has the right to whip you.There's one thing that saved a man named Frederick Douglass and that’s hope. In the Narrative of the Life of FREDERICK DOUGLASS the author Frederick Douglass himself uses several literary techniques to reveal to us how hope helped Frederick Douglass become a freeman. Throughout the narrative many conflicts happened involving Frederick Douglass.I believe it was a battle against society that Douglass was fighting.Society felt Douglass should serve his master accordingly.Douglass struggled to free himself mentally and physically. His mind cleared after a fight with Covey.Covey is a white farmer who is known for taming troublesome slaves. The text states, "This battle with Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave... and revived me a sense of my own manhood." After this battle Covey...
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 2185 - Pages: 9
...Frederick Douglass Narrative Have you ever wondered what life was like for slaves in America during the 1800s and what cruelties they had to endure every day? Frederick Douglass was an African-American orator, writer, and abolitionist who had witnessed and experienced the effects of slavery first-hand. Douglass wrote the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” to show the public the horrible depths of slavery. Since he was an abolitionist, he wished to abolish slavery completely and permanently. Slavery was still alive and well when his narrative was written. You can trust what Frederick Douglass wrote about his life and his surroundings because he had no reason to lie or make up any stories. As an abolitionist, he wanted to make known...
Words: 2099 - Pages: 9
