In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.
Midterm Essay Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and accomplished orator, provides in his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a definitive and first-hand account of slavery in America in the mid-Nineteenth Century. This short piece of American literature is filled with rhetorical knowledge, and Douglass uses his remarkable sense of rhetoric and subtle literary techniques, with plenty of ethos, logos, and pathos, to bring his message of hope for change to an entire nation pitted against him. Combining his unfortunately intimate knowledge of slavery and his literary abilities, Douglass does what all slaves wanted: exposing a nation’s great sin and providing the evidence for its salvation. To begin with, Douglass’s
Douglass, with realization of his wretched state, does become miserable, and it is true that a slave who acknowledges the unfairness of slavery is undesirable to masters. In fact, this statement conveys a sense of fear regarding the slave’s literacy; this man seems to know that a literate slave would cause the rebellion against the whites. Douglass’s literacy would enable him to have “an increasing awareness of and control over the social means by which people sustain discourse, knowledge, and reality” (Royer) and inspire him to work against such society. Indeed, Douglass has escaped slavery through his personal realization. His Narrative uses the literacy acquired
Douglass for example emphasized the importance of education for slaves. Douglass is a first had observer of the strategy of slave owners to keep their slaves ignorant. By keeping slave uneducated they are unable to express the horrible things that happen to them to the world. Hugh Auld forces his wife to stop teaching Douglass to read (auld stopping teaching quote) , so Douglass teaches himself. For him learning to read was a major turning point in his quest for freedom and it enabled him to put out his book, which would inspire many to turn against slavery.
This astonishing book is about Frederick Douglass’s journey during slavery. He shows us the traumatic and miserable attributes of the many things he went through during his life as a slave. But his passion for learning guided him to liberation. In relation to Frederick Douglass in his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slavery and freedom was a great significance in the duration of the book. This raises the following question: How does economic freedom affect people?
Frederick Douglass was a slave for many years. He suffered through abuse and cruelty from his slave owners. He was not considered a person, he was considered a piece of property. Douglass recounts his emotions on escaping slavery and arriving in New York in 1838. Frederick Douglass recalls his time in slavery and employs the use of similes and antithesis to convey his state of mind when recounting his escape from slavery.
Education Determines Your Destination Education is the light at the end of the tunnel, when Frederick uses it he discovers hope. In the story the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick goes through many struggles on his path to freedom, showing us the road from slavery to freedom. At the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave in both body and mind. When the book ends, he gets both his legal freedom and frees his mind. The path to freedom was not easy, but it got clearer when he got an education.
It makes us free and it avoid us to be enslaved, too. However, literacy turns out to be not only bliss, but also painful. Indeed, while learning to read Frederick becomes more and more aware of the injustices of slavery, and this leads him to regret this knowledge “Learning how to read had become a curse rather than a blessing” ( Douglass ) . Douglass believes in the importance of education. He thinks that education is a key part to our life; it is the only way to get freedom.
Throughout the story he manages to stay quite neutral with his tone. He appears to be understanding of the slaveholder’s point of view. He took the time to step in the mistress’ shoes for a moment to understand what she was going through as well. An example of him being understanding is when Douglass stated that she was “benevolent.” He saw her kind side and was willing to recognize it. By using this diction, one can
His beatings and lack of food were only part of his miserable daily life. Eventually Douglass was able to successfully escape this life and vowed to forever actively support the equality of all