The Role Of Prejudice In Frederick Douglass Way In The Middle Of The Air

Three very different texts, “Way in the Middle of the Air” by Ray Bradbury, “The Shadow” by Hans Christian Andersen, and “Letter to His Old Master” by Frederick Douglass, share the timeless theme of prejudice. Although all three of these texts are more than 50 years old, nevertheless, they still have modern relevance. The roles we play in society affect our outlook on humanity; prejudice is not only unjustified, it is tied to the structure of society as a whole. The usage of dark and light in The Shadow is interesting, because the darkness of the role of the shadow represents the prejudice that comes with being a shadow. When the dark shadow becomes a man, he goes from dark to light. When the shadow is a shadow (dark), he is not the victim

The Scholar says, “I am tremendously pleased to hear of your good luck! Sit down, my old friend, and tell me a bit about how it all happened…” This starkly contrasts with Teece’s character from Way in the Middle of the Air, in terms of prejudice. The Scholar does not show prejudice towards his shadow at all in the beginning, whereas Teece is extremely prejudiced and discriminatory towards his workers throughout the story. As The Shadow progresses, and man becomes shadow and vice versa, the Shadow becomes more intolerant towards the Scholar and the Scholar has to live with it until eventually he is killed by order of the Shadow. Even though the Scholar was once a man, once he becomes the Shadow’s shadow, he is treated like a shadow, showing the importance of

In Douglass’s letter to his old master, even though Douglass was severely mistreated by his master before escaping, he still writes cordially and politely. He even goes so far as to say,
In doing this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other.
Douglass has overcome the societal roles and in saying this, he shows that he believes in the golden rule and is willing even to let his former master (and tormentor) stay in his own home. This is an example to all of us on how one should treat others.
In The Shadow, the “man” always has a prejudice towards “his shadow.” When the Scholar meets the shadow after the shadow has become a man, he treats him politely and kindly, but the shadow manipulates him and turns the scholar into “his” shadow. Once the man becomes a shadow and the shadow becomes a man, the Shadow mistreats and eventually kills his shadow (who in reality is a man) because of