Theme Of Self Determination In Frederick Douglass

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Frederick Douglass develops self-determination through the discovery of education and its pathway from slavery to freedom. Frederick already understood the physical brutality of slavery, but becomes aware of the mental brutality and the psychological control of withholding literacy. [He would at once become unmanageable and no value to his master X. 409.] Hearing his master's words, Douglass found a purpose to become literate. He looks at the situation with an analytical eye and is able to fight back with his sarcastic and ironic tone, referring to his masters as “pious.” Frederick knows that knowledge can break the white man’s power of enslaving human beings. “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. VII. 413.”

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