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Analysis of the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass narrative analysis
The developemt of slavery in america
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Reaction Paper: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave I both read and listened to Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself Frederick Douglass, I reacted passionately to his tale, I expected the work to be as dry as many historical retellings can be; however Douglass’ graphic depiction of the horrors he and those around him faced for me were visceral. I was surprised that Douglass viewed slavery as not just harmful to African Americans, he wrote often of its’ damaging the slaveholders as well. Another shocking theme was Douglass’ take on Christianity, I never expect to encounter anything where someone does anything but sing its praises. Overall this book helped me reanalyze the …show more content…
I hope to elaborate more on these points, his depictions of physical abuse, his care for the slaveholder’s humanity and the blame laid at altar of the Christian faith. One theme I hope to discuss along with both the abuse and the effect of slavery on the slaveholders, that theme is the use of females to portray slavery as morally corrupt. Mr. Douglass wrote of the trials of slavery in such a personal way that he made you feel as close as you can come to understanding the wretchedness people suffered. The brutal and graphic descriptions of physical abuse along with the mental and emotional anguish while not being wholly relatable for myself …show more content…
Douglass used the horror these women suffered to help the reader grasp how unnatural the brutality of slavery was. The first physical abuse he recounts is the whipping of his aunt Hester, the way he describes the acts committed by Master Anthony at the beginning of the scene were meant to make the good men and women that read it in the 1800s to feel uncomfortable hearing of a member of the fairer sex’s clothes ripped from their body, he even describes her naked flesh. He was a master of imagery as you read the book or listen to the audiobook you can see Aunt Hester hanging their toes barely grazing the floor as blood oozes out of her wounds. “Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked. He then told her to cross her hands, calling her at the same time a d——d b—-h. After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her, "Now, you d——d b—-h, I'll learn you how to disobey my orders!" and after rolling up
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass himself is a brutally honest portrayal of slavery's dehumanizing capabilities. The style of this famous autobiography can be best described as personal, emotional, and compelling. By writing this narrative, Douglass wants his audience to understand him. He does this by speaking informally like a person would when writing a letter or telling a story to a friend. By clearly establishing his credibility and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices to argue for the immorality of slavery.
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
Douglass, Frederick. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.
Fredrick describes the horrendous physical abuse of his aunt, that many other women had to go through when he states "whip upon her naked back-covered with blood". Fredericks aunt would scream loud, the louder she screamed the harder she got whipped and would bleed, it was torture at its best. On the other hand, mental abuse was at times different for women. Harriet Jacobs makes the reader aware that women would "tremble when she hears her masters footfall" and be frighten of her slave owner. Then again women would be told "foul words" to fill their "minds with unclean images". This would make them feel uncomfortable and
While on the plantation in Maryland the slave’s had an overseer named Mr. Plumber. Mr. Plumber had told Aunt Hester not to go see a young man that she fancied who lived near the plantation, but she disobeyed and went to meet him. Mr. Plumber discovered Aunt Hester’s defiance and saw it consequence to whip her. He tied her hands crossed with rope and hung her to a hook while she stood on a stool and slashed her repeatedly with the whip. As blood came from the slashing, Douglass later commented, “I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery.
In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a slave narrative published in 1845, Frederick Douglass divulged his past as a slave and presented a multifaceted argument against slavery in the United States. Douglass built his argument with endless anecdotes and colorful figurative language. He attempted to familiarize the naïve Northerners with the hardships of slavery and negate any misconstrued ideas that would prolong slavery’s existence in American homes. Particularly in chapter seven, Douglass both narrated his personal experience of learning to write and identified the benefits and consequences of being an educated slave.
“He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes.” said Douglass “ he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor.” Slaveholders had many different strategies to control their slaves. In both Frederick Douglass slave narrative “ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and in Jacobs's slave narrative “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” the slaveholders were smart and had many techniques to control the slaves.
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave has four fundamental themes running throughout the work: ignorance as a catalyst for slavery, knowledge leading the way to freedom, the damaging effects of slavery, and slavery’s distorted ties to Christianity. The first recurring theme, ignorance as a catalyst of slavery, seems to be the most relevant to the work as a whole. In Douglass’s time, it was extremely common for slaveholders to withhold an education from their slaves as they believed that African Americans were incapable of serving as functioning members of civil society and were only fit to serve as manual laborers for their Caucasian superiors. This forced ignorance ranged from an actual education to fundamental information
My personal responses to Douglass’ Narrative are that of horror and interest. Before reading Douglass’ slave narrative, I was unaware of the extent of the human rights violations against African Americans. In the past I was taught that slavery was a cruel institution which over-worked and mistreated slaves, but I did not, however, know much detail regarding the slaves’ daily lives. However, Douglass’ slave narrative not only exposes the slaves’ extremely poor living conditions, such as a minimal amount of food, adequate clothing, and limited bed-material given to slaves per month, but also explains family life in slavery. In respect to the provisions granted to the enslaved peoples, Douglass writes “The men and women slaves received, as their
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
During a time of war leading to reconstruction of the United States of America there were few that had such passion to speak out against slavery to set forth laws of equality. An escaped slave, Frederick Douglass, went against current times with the possibility of being apprehended and executed became an abolitionist. Women in society were seen as precious objects, you were not supposed to publically beat women. Douglass’s narrative shows many slave women being beaten by other men and women. Most of the violent scenes in involved women. He associates women with suffering. Frederick makes a special point of describing the traumatic sight of female slaves being beaten and abused. The rape of female slaves by their masters was another common