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After the American Revolution in 1765-1783, there are many literary works that truly are a window into the development of Americans free of British influence. There is a lot of romanticism in the natural world of America and elevating the men who lived freely in the wilderness, the “mountain man,” was something distinctly American. The emergence of American slave narratives was also around this time, so the pride in the liberty and freedom of America was shadowed by the shame of enslaving millions of African people over the course of the country’s history. As a means to show this contrast, one can look at the work of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). Cooper wrote The Last of the Mohicans, a fictional story …show more content…
In The Last of the Mohicans, there are two main Native American characters names Chingachgook who is a longtime friend of Bumppo, and Uncas who is Chingachgook’s son. Uncas plays an important and heroic role in this book, he helps Bumppo defeat the main antagonist of the book, Magua, who is a Huron assisting the enemies of the Mohicans and Bumppo. Cooper also has a character named Cora who is biracial and she is depicted as intelligent and brave. While these characters are shown in a positive light, there is still a sense of white superiority in the book that can be seen at the start of the third chapter where Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook get into a bit of an argument. The argument seems to try to justify parts of the French and Indian War in favor of the white men, but also tries to separate Natty Bummpo from the negative parts of those men as Hawkeye says, “And I am willing to own that my people have many ways, of which, as an honest man, I can’t approve” (149). While Hawkeye says “every story has its two sides” (150), it cannot be denied historically that the Native American people were treated unfairly by white men. So Cooper often places Hawkeye above his other non-white characters where he always comes out above them a greater …show more content…
Early in his life Douglass, realized the importance of learning to read and write due to his master, Mr. Auld, getting so angry with Mrs. Auld for helping Douglass learn to read. This sparked an intense desire for a young Douglass to do everything he could to continue his learning despite Mrs. Auld halting her teachings, “All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken, Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell” (338). He convinced poor, young, white children to help him learn to read and write by making games of it with them or offering them food in exchange for whatever they could teach him. Douglass is a more realistic representation of an American hero, and he fought vehemently for his own freedom and then against the injustices still left in this country. While Natty Bumppo represents one kind of American hero, is Frederick Douglass not a better representation of what it really means to be American? Cooper progressively creates non-white characters, but still holds a strong bias towards having a white hero stand above the rest and does not fully address the shame of what was done to Native Americans in pushing them from their own land. While America was freed from British control, there was still an unjust power struggle in
In his self-titled chronicle, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave", the author presents his audience with a memorable description of his resourcefulness in how he learned to write. His determination to shake off the bonds of illiteracy imposed by his slaveholders created in him the ability to conquer obstacles that held many slaves back. His mastery of the basic steps of the written language would one day play a central role in his success as a free man. The way these skills were acquired teaches us not only of his willpower, but also of his ingenuity as well. The outcome of his efforts culminated in an inimitable slave-narrative, as well as a career as one of the most famous abolitionists that this country would ever know.
The Last of the Mohicans, Uncle Tom’s cabin, and Connecticut Yankee genres are fairly similar just in different ways. All three of the novels take place in the nineteenth century and all have a tragedy and adventure plot point. The authors take these genres and use them to the best of their ability in the novels. The genres bring freedom, faith, and death through all of the pieces of literature.
Along with family and religion, education is one of the most important aspects in society. Fredrick Douglass realized the importance of a good education by learning to read and later becoming a writer, author and advocate of African Americans, women, and many others. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, we learn the significance and importance of Douglass learning to read, the affect the institution of slavery had on both whites and blacks, and why learning to read threatened the institution of slavery in general.
Many people take for grant of the freedom we have, but Douglass shows that having freedom means having the ability to control one’s own destiny. Douglass was a slave who like any other slaves cannot be educated. Douglass finds this out by accident when he overhears the reasons why it was illegal for them to get education- it because the white slave owners did not want slaves to gain knowledge as it will bring disorder and rebel against slavery. As a result of this finding, Douglass seeks out his own education. One of his methods of learning how to read is by exchanging foods for learning to read. During the slavery, poverty also affected all different people, so Douglass would give breads to poor children and for exchange teach Douglass some words. For Douglass learning meant punishments or even death, but he takes the risk and did all he can to gain knowledge because this is the only way he can be free. He demonstrates to people that education is powerful and the way one can truly be self-governed. Douglass story is a reminder to always appreciate education and to take the most out of learning because in the end no one can take away what’s in our
The first step to Frederick Douglass's reading was his kind mistress, Mrs. Auld, Teaching him the ABC's. She then assisted him in learning to spell small words. It was at this point, that Frederick Douglass's master, Mr. Auld realized his wife has been educating Douglass to read. Mr. Auld refused to allow Mrs. Auld to continue teaching Frederick Douglass, stating that: "If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would forever become unmanageable and of no value to his master" (47). Little did Mr. Auld know, he had just accidentally given Frederick Douglass an invaluable lesson as Frederick Douglass had overheard this conversation between Mr. and Mrs. ...
As a relatively young man, Frederick Douglass discovers, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, that learning to read and write can be his path to freedom. Upon discovering that...
Although Douglass’s primary obstacle to educating himself was not money, he still was challenged by the standards of slavery. The text begins with how the standards of slavery transformed his Mistress from a tender-hearted woman who once treated him like a normal being into a corrupted person who displayed no sign of remorse for her immoral actions. According to Douglass, his Mistress had once educated him. After her transformation, he then recognized that she did every attempt to impede him from education himself. It is evident in the text when he stated:” Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper” (Douglass 73). However, despite the challenges that Douglass faced, he managed to find every other alternative to educate himself. Although he lacked the freedom to learn, Douglass lived in a house replete with food and essentials needed to sustain him a comfortable life. In exchange for knowledge, Douglass would offer bread to the white poor children in his neighborhood. Another way that Douglass educated himself was by writing on the Crates in the shipyard. He would observe the men that would write on the timber, labeling them. Lastly, while both Master Hugh and Douglass’s Mistress were gone, he would read books written by Hugh and eventually learned how to write the very same way as his
––––Life for Douglass improved a bit when he was sold to the Auld family. The wife, Sofia Auld, treated Douglass very kindly and taught him the alphabet and read the Bible to him. Mrs. Auld wasn’t prone to slavery because she had grown up in a poor family before marrying her husband, Hugh, so she didn’t know that she wasn’t supposed to teach Douglass how to read. Once her husband found out Douglass was learning to read, he was enraged. He told his w...
This is the time period where he learned to read and write. His mistress, who was a compassionate lady, was secretly teaching Douglass behind her husband’s back. She sparked Douglass’s desire to become a literate person. Mrs. Hugh taught him the alphabet and, soon after, her husband found out what she had done. He explained that teaching a slave put their family in a dangerous situation and she became harsher than her husband. Douglass’s desire still urged on and he found his own way to learn to read. Douglass used his resources to his advantage. He used bread form the Hugh’s kitchen, which was available to him, to bribe the poor white boys and, in turn, they would teach him how to read. These boys then became his unofficial teachers. Douglass says of the boys, “I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men” (62). Douglass felt that learning to read would give him a sense of independence, but yet he would never be truly free because of
Frederick Douglass is known through the eyes of many as a passionate abolitionist, who worked to gain rights for the African American population. In reality, he was much more than this. As an adult he was a prized author, an editor of a newspaper, a lecturer, and a salesman (Schmitt, 1). Such accomplishments were not gained overnight, though, his journey was a long one riddled with pain and challenges. He began his life as a slave, raised by his grandparents (3). As he grew older and more useful he was moved around to other plantations, at one of with he learned to read under the watchful eye of his master’s wife (5). After a few years here, it was observed by his masters that he had become “softened” by the relaxed life of a city slave, so he was sent to a renowned slave beater to be straightened out. To their dismay, by this point in his life Douglass was strong and courageous, and after six months at the hands of the slave beater he began fighting back (6). Scared of what Douglass would do to his reputation, the slave beater sent the boy back to his previous owner. It was at this time Douglass planned his escape to New York. At the age of 20 he made his move (7). Once free, Douglass lived
He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of
In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.
Deviating from his typically autobiographical and abolitionist literatures, Frederick Douglass pens his first work of fiction, “The Heroic Slave,” the imagined backstory of famed ex-slave Madison Washington, best known for his leadership in a slave rebellion aboard about the slave ship Creole. An interesting plot and Douglass’ word choice provide a powerful portrait of slavery and the people affected by it.
In James Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, Cora Munro is marginalized and forced to endure the violence that ensues from masculine struggles, while in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Katrina Von Tassel is reduced to being a mere commodity and means for Ichabond Crane to obtain success and wealth. Cora Munro and Katrina Von Tassel however, redefine their own roles in the American frontier by challenging conventional gender roles and expectations. Cora is characterized as being courageous in the face of danger, independent, and intelligent, which is a stark contrast with her sister, Alice, who is described as having a dependency that is akin