Slavery may have been outlawed many years ago, but its claws are still buried tight in the hearts and homes of many. Modern slavery isn't plantations and whipping so much as it is starvation and being in a locked room. The two stories of slavery I have read, The Slave Girl in California, as well as the novel of Frederick Douglas, differ in many ways but are also quite similar. Desire and courage are two central themes in the Slave Girl story and Frederick Douglas stories. However, there are opposing themes such as that of Eternity and of Chance. In both stories, the characters are enslaved without freedom of choice in any way. They are forced to work, punished harshly for their failings, and treated as though they weren't even human. Bought …show more content…
Courage dictates our response to our greatest fears. Courage is seen most often in those who refuse to be forgotten, who refuse becoming another number, who are willing to get out of their monotony and push past the barriers in their way. True Courage is rare, however, as human nature is a cowardly one. But we see that Courage in Slave Girl and Frederick Douglas. We see that they, people who have had no freedom for years upon years, beaten for even voicing an opinion, can rise past the fear. The fear of death. The fear of pain. The fear of failure. Both of the enslaved fought back in their own ways. Frederick Douglas became free, a miracle in his time, and his Courage pushed him to go further. Courage willed him to expose the veritable hell on earth that was slavery and become a voice to those still trapped in its unyielding arms. He pushed past the barriers of his color, his past, and his blood stained memories, to shine a light on the biggest human hobby to ever be known. For Slave Girl, it was different. Her Courage was not in escape but in recovery. She was found a shaking, crying girl by the officer who led her away, she was transformed into a poster girl for those who had escaped captivity. Courage led her to learn English, reconnecting with her Family, going to school, gaining citizenship, and simply getting up in the morning. No doubt her memories of enslavement torment her daily, but Courage let her leave the past in …show more content…
It is an infinite concept, a never ending realm of possibility in the right hands. But the slaves of Frederick Douglas’s time knew it well. Enslavement was an Eternity to them, they knew of nothing else. You were born a slave and died a slave. An Eternity filled with pain. Not only were their controlled lives Eternal, but their days. Wake up and go to the fields, do your work, avoid punishment. Cry at the pain of others or turn a blind eye, it didn't matter, no one could ignore the reality of their lives. At the end of the day, sleep, and hope for dreams of something new, something better. But it never came. Back to the fields, they would scurry, wincing at the pain of old scars and weeping as new ones formed. That was Eternity. That was forever. Maybe they had an occasional change, but nothing differed enough to change their reality. The pain and the chains and the blood were forever, an eternal hell that went with them till their final breath. Slave Girl broke past that Eternity when she was rescued, she never knew it as such. Had she been born into the work, had she seen others die during her enslavement, then Eternity would have bared its fangs to her. But it simply lurked in the shadows, fading as she was driven away in that police car. Eternity is not known to many, but it is known to those of us most broken and bent that little can repair