Compare And Contrast Poem By Tyler Family Papers
Chase Clark
Dr. Jane Wessel
English 2330
3 March 2018
The Plea for Freedom The poems “The Negro’s Complaint” by William Cowper and “On Sugar” by the Tyler Family Papers gives us a perspective on pain and suffering that every slave experienced, and although these poems are different in perspective, both of them speak in a dark emotional tone by questioning the white slave owners if what they are doing is morally justified. These two poems will be compared and contrasted to each other, and then converge to make the reader feel immoral and guilty. The slave within each poem plead together to the reader to look at the slaves equally to them, such as if their color did not exist. While comparing the tactics of these two poems, you must imagine
…show more content…
We can see in both of the poems, the suffering is all attributed to the hunger for wealth through the sale of sugar that the slaves produce. This cash crop is the primary theme in “On Sugar”, it’s showing a viewpoint of the slave as he refuses to eat what his brothers and sisters were forced to work for. It begins with the bold remark, “Go guilty, tho’ seducing food” (Tyler, line 1), and four lines down clarifies with the pair of lines, “To me thy tempting white appears / Steep’d in a thousand Negros tears” (Tyler, lines 5-6). Tyler conveys the sugar as repulsive due to the nature of its production, but on the other hand it ironically describes it as ‘seducing’. The slaves had to suffer through the forced labor of working in the sugar farms and refineries, even though the actual product is well known to be enjoyed by those who eat it. The way the author shows this relation is with the repetitive line throughout the poem saying that the sugar is “Purchas’d by many a brothers blood” (Tyler, lines 2, 18, …show more content…
However, the take away at the end of both poems is the guilt that is felt within the heart of the reader. “On Sugar” conveys this guilt as an implicit question that is asked in a rhetorical way. Throughout the poem, you listen to the author explain why he shall not eat the sugar that he has the full ability to do. Rather, he finds the journey the sugar took through the blood and tears through the working slaves to be repulsive. This takes ahold of the reader’s conscious by letting them ask themselves if they should do the same. Eating the sugar would be a supportive action of slavery, therefore would support the dark and violent truth that slavery upholds. This correlates with the last two lines of the poem, “And Bless the Day I scorn’d the food / Purchas’d by many a Brothers blood”. (Tyler lines
• How Did The Speaker Use Appeals To Describe The Slaves And The Slave Trade?
437 Words | 2 PagesHow did the speaker use appeals to describe the slaves and the slave trade? The speaker uses appeals because at the time slaves could not write or read so he uses them to express the slaves emotions throughout the poem. The speaker uses the appeal to reason, logic, and motion throughout the poem because at this time slaves couldn't write down what they was feeling or thinking about. The speaker uses appeal to emotion in the third stanza explaining the guilt the slave owners should feel with all the miserable and cruel things that they did to them.
What Is Harriet Tubman's Struggles
197 Words | 1 PagesStruggles of slavery in the American south Difficulties of slavery in the American south shows that slave families split up and physical pain was normal life struggles for slaves. ’’In the text Harriet Tubman’’she gets hit by a two pound weight by her overseer because she refused to listen. This shows me that slaves did not get treated well even for their hard work for other people. ‘’
Celia Slave
1753 Words | 8 PagesLet us begin with George, Celia’s understandably treacherous slave lover, and his unreasonable demands that set Celia’s case into motion. George’s actions are an example of the common frustration and desperation of slave men who had no control over the sexual abuse of their loved ones by white masters (McLaurin 139-140). His was a reaction to a smoldering attack upon his masculinity, an attack that was a direct result of the dehumanization upon which slavery rested. Because the South was a slave society, this master-slave relationship structure echoed throughout every other aspect of southern life (Faragher, 204 & 215). In Celia’s case, we see this truth through Virginia and Mary Newsom’s position of powerlessness.
Rhetoric In Fredrick Douglass 'As With Rivers So With Nation'
257 Words | 2 Pages“With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final”; not slavery and oppression.” This relates to the hardships and the fact that the people don’t recognize how terrible it is. And that these meanings of these “free” words mean something else to him and other slaves. He shows that the changes are hard but once they are made everything will be peaceful. Rhetorical features and strategies are Douglass’ forte’ in engaging with the audience.
Frederick Douglass Paradox Analysis
161 Words | 1 PagesDouglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.
Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay
648 Words | 3 Pages‘’ No words, No tears, No prayers, from his glory victim, seemed to move his iron heart fro his bloody purpose.’’ (page 5). Douglass appeals to the mournful emotions of the audience by expressing how the overseers gave no mercy or cared about the effect of whippings to the slaves. Douglass use of parallelism displayed how slavery was
Frederick Douglass: Overcoming Obstacles
392 Words | 2 PagesDouglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).
Emotional Irony In Frederick Douglass
1876 Words | 8 PagesWhile learning to read and write ultimately helped him escape, it caused him suffering beforehand. More thorough understanding of slavery made him angrier with his masters, less satisfied with complacency, and more anguished at his position. What he read was liberating and crushing simultaneously, and he detailed this ironic duality in describing his anguished emotions at the time. The writings themselves also prompted discussion of the irony in hypocritically oppressive slave owners who claim to be Americans for freedom and Christians for equality but force the opposites on slaves. Describing his stressful emotions, which happened to be situationally ironic, creates an effective emotional appeal to sympathy similar to the childhood chapters.
Frederick Douglass Use And Abuse Of Power Essay
498 Words | 2 PagesThe Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.
Comparing The Narrative Of Solomon Northup 12 Years A Slave
714 Words | 3 PagesThe times of slavery had only brought sadness and despair for all African-Americans in the United States during the times of the Civil War. People were treated as property, denied a proper education, and overall treated as expendable and inconsequential pieces of trash. The one thing that was done so that we could understand the pain that these slaves had gone through was the slaves explaining their experiences through writing to be studied throughout history. However, there are very distinct differences between the writings in how they are made and written.
Frederick Douglass An American Slave Rhetorical Analysis Essay
732 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.
Frederick Douglass Negative Effects On Slaves
753 Words | 4 PagesFrederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.
Phyllis Wheatley: A Brief Biography
882 Words | 4 PagesIn 1773, there were slaves all over colonial America working in plantations, and cleaning their masters houses. It wasn’t common for a slave to be writing poetry with their owners consent. Phyllis Wheatley’s success as the first African American published poet was what inspired generations to tell her story. It was her intellectual mind and point of view that made her different from others, both black and white. Phyllis’s story broke the barrier for all African American writers, and proved that no matter the gender or race, all human beings are capable of having an intelligent state of mind.
My Bondage And My Freedom Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis
616 Words | 3 PagesHe uses these experiences to show just how unjust the treatment towards slaves was. As a child, he was not allowed to learn like many of the white children were, they wanted to keep the slaves ignorant
The Negro's Complaint Analysis
1541 Words | 7 PagesThe poem is constructed into seven stanzas, organized in iambic pentameter containing a rhythm of “ababcdcd”, throughout the rhythm of the poem comes reflection to the emotions of the speaker whom is a slave. In one stanza the slave uses his curiosity to ask god why cotton plants were made (the slaves mostly worked through picking cotton plants). “Why did all-creating nature Make the plant for which we toil? and how horrible it is for anyone to be a slave, Think, ye masters iron-hearted... How many back have smarted For the
More about Compare And Contrast Poem By Tyler Family Papers
• How Did The Speaker Use Appeals To Describe The Slaves And The Slave Trade?
437 Words | 2 PagesWhat Is Harriet Tubman's Struggles
197 Words | 1 PagesCelia Slave
1753 Words | 8 PagesRhetoric In Fredrick Douglass 'As With Rivers So With Nation'
257 Words | 2 PagesFrederick Douglass Paradox Analysis
161 Words | 1 PagesNarrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay
648 Words | 3 PagesFrederick Douglass: Overcoming Obstacles
392 Words | 2 PagesEmotional Irony In Frederick Douglass
1876 Words | 8 PagesFrederick Douglass Use And Abuse Of Power Essay
498 Words | 2 PagesComparing The Narrative Of Solomon Northup 12 Years A Slave
714 Words | 3 PagesFrederick Douglass An American Slave Rhetorical Analysis Essay
732 Words | 3 PagesFrederick Douglass Negative Effects On Slaves
753 Words | 4 PagesPhyllis Wheatley: A Brief Biography
882 Words | 4 PagesMy Bondage And My Freedom Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis
616 Words | 3 PagesThe Negro's Complaint Analysis
1541 Words | 7 Pages