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.
Though society told him how to act and what to believe, he continuously did what he believed to be right. There are three key lessons I believe to be leading causes of Hucks growth. The first lesson is how fallacious slavery was. The first important lesson that took Huck from boyhood to manhood, would be the realization that Slavery was inhuman. In the book, as seen in real life, slaveholders would make a profit, while the slaves were oppressed.
As, Abraham Lincoln said: “When I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” Mark Twain, in his book continually criticizes the cruelty of human beings. One of the main themes that Mark Twain worked in his novel was the cruelty involved with Slavery. The life of a slave depicts that human beings are not always as benevolent as they appear to be. Twain in this novel exhibits the perfidious ways of slavery in America by ridiculing slavery’s outlandish ways. Satire is once again used to portray slavery in this novel.
While some may say that their messages are different, they are actually quite similar because they are both expose biased education and religion, disrespect of slaves, and the greed of society. It can be argued that these messages differ greatly, they are very alike since they reveal corrupt education and religion. Through his excerpts Douglass tells of when he was first trying to learn how to read and write. When his master at the time, Mr. Auld, discovered of the mistress teaching Frederick how to read he said, “Now if you teach that n****r how to read there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave” (Douglass 14).
However, Mr. Shelby, despite the moral arguments of his honourable wife, views slavery primarily as a business and reluctantly agrees to sell Uncle Tom to slave traders because of economic necessity, even though the sale separates Tom from children and violates the bond of husband and wife. Conclusion African family traditions, which varied according to national origin and religion, could not be replicated in the New World after Africans were forced into slavery. The slave trade was responsible for breaking up African families. Husbands, wives and children could be sold separately because U.S. law did not legally
Think of your wretched sisters, loving virtue and purity, as they are driven into concubinage and are exposed to the unbridled lusts of incarnate devils” (2159). This is to put shame on the slaves for being a “patient people”, for allowing themselves to be in that situation in the first place. Be that as it may, Walker decidedly chooses to point out enslaved people as a whole are the primary victims of slavery, not just one over the other. While Garnet focuses in on gender to make a luring point, Walker prioritizes the role of white people in the brutalization of slaves. He spits out that slaves are “the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began”, not as a ridicule of his people, but as a testimony toward the suffering and mental abuse slaves have had to live through
On the one hand, Northup focuses on Ford’s kind treatment towards his slaves and Ford’s nonviolent beliefs regarding the institution of slavery, which makes a respectable argument for slave owners to treat their slaves better. On the other hand, Northup goes into depth about the constant pain that slaves must endure. Both of these strategies sustain the logical argument of treating slaves better. Whether a slave owner recognizes the possible benefits of treating slaves better, or recognizes the sheer inhumanity and emotional and physical abuse that slaves experience, Northup’s narrative advocates better treatment of slaves and gives multiple examples of why slave owners should treat slaves better. Can slave narratives change everyone’s perspective on slavery?
Although Huck was surrounded by slaveowners as he grew up, he decided to make his own decisions regarding the way he would treat Jim. The decision to treat Jim this way was an extreme act of moral courage. In conclusion, Mark Twain conveys the idea that morality is dictated by society. The novel displays this concept when Huck struggles with the decision of whether to turn Jim in. Both the Mississippi river and Jim symbolize freedom throughout the story.
For example, as Huck reminisces his feats with Jim he says, “and for a starter I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that too” (214). Huck holds onto Jim as a father figure who accepted and cared from him when others did not accept who he was. The civilized world robbed Jim of his freedom and Huck realized that skin and race do not translate into love, companionship, and friendship. Racism is not a playing factor in this story in fact it is anti-racism that leads the two most unlikely individuals to become friends. In addition, Ralph Waldo Ellison once said, "Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim was not only a slave but a human being and a symbol of humanity... and in freeing Jim.
The main difference is shown when Huck and Jim both run away from home, people consider Huck as a abused runaway boy from his father Pap and Jim is considered as a runaway slave, so therefore people feel pity on Huck and help him as much as they can as he belongs to a white society. For example people give him money and shelter to live. Whereas for Jim people take advantage to catch him and get the reward as announced. This clearly shows how Jim is being discriminated by the society. Not only through Jim’s character we get the concept of Mark twain’s pessimistic views on American society, he mostly mentioned many different characters to show each individual views on racism and how they