Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay

Picture this going through life without the ability to read or write. Without these abilities, it is impossible for a person to be a functioning member of society. In addition, imagine that someone is purposely limiting your knowledge to keep a leash on your independence. Not only is an American slave raised without skills in literacy, he cannot be taught to read unless someone breaks the law. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader is given a detailed explanation of why slave masters keep their slaves ignorant and the effects such a strategy has on the slaves’ lives. In his autobiography, Douglass describes how the knowledge he obtains has substantial positive and negative effects on his psyche. He is given renewed passion and hope for freedom while struggling with the burden of enlightenment of his situation. Ultimately, however, education shapes his fate, and he achieves freedom and prominence as an advocate for abolition.

Douglass had an obvious want for knowledge and understanding, which he clearly fought for through his autobiography. He was taught the alphabet and how to spell at a young age by his master’s wife. However, his teachings were put down when his owner told his wife that there’d be no fit for him if he learned how to read. Douglass soon started to realize that if he wanted his freedom he’d have to learn to read. Being told not to learn only made him want to learn more so that one day he will gain the respect, knowledge, and freedom he deserved. He even used bribes to have young boys teach him to write. His want for education was very strong, and that’s where he uses his desire to his advantage in the writing style of his self written life story. He tells his story as if we were alongside him the whole way learning how he put each little teaching he learned together like a puzzle to make one big magnificent masterpiece at the end when he finally gained his freedom. As Douglass continued to gain knowledge, he gained more character and found himself to not be just a slave but a human being, a valuable and important man who wanted to make a difference in the way he

Even with the strong endeavors to stop the education of Douglass, he still managed to learn to read by getting his hands on any book he could find, and with the "inch" of knowledge the woman had provided him, the alphabet. There was only one problem, Douglass still did not know how to write, and writing was a crucial part of Douglass' career. Douglass was very clever in approaching this large ordeal, for he knew that he couldn't ask the racially influenced adults of his area. So Douglass would have to learn to write from the most innocent of humans, children. These children had not been able to be fully influenced in the art of oppression, and with ambition and trickery, Douglass would learn to write through the "guidance" of the

and write in the hope that the boy could get to know the Bible. When

He learns the alphabet from his mistress. However, she has to suddenly stop teaching him when his master declares “If you teach that nigger to read, there will be no keeping him. He will forever be unfit to be a slave” (Douglass 960). Hence, Douglass recognizes that education means power. The path to freedom and equality is paved by education. Immediately after, he “… set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read” (Douglass 960). The laws and consequent restrictions meant to prevent him from learning serve only to fuel his passion to acquire the knowledge he needs to become a man. Douglass lets nothing prevent him from learning, and continues to cleverly find ways to learn to read and write (Levine 935). His desire for the self-respect that an education will give him is very clear in the writing style of his autobiography. Even the words in the title “Written by Myself” is a statement of education. It says, I am literate, I am human, and the equivalent of any person in my audience. For this purpose, he persistently uses the bible and political documents in shaping his intellectual views. He knows how important validating his thoughts and ideas with sources are in establishing ethos and logos. Accordingly, as Douglass continues to further his own

In the story "Learning to Read and Write," Frederick Douglass reported that Education and slavery were incompatible with each other. Douglass had the will and the willingness to succeeded, and accomplished his goals during his slavery period; regardless of all difficulties, he encountered.

Before I read this piece of art, I did not think that I would like it; I thought it was a tedious literary work like the ones a part of a colossal textbook at first glance. However, I changed my mind after reading it thoroughly. I am honestly amazed at how Douglass’ words link together to have such easy flow and clarity through each sentence. He is a better writer than some of the people who learned how to read and write at an even younger age than him. Last but not least, I love how he proves that education is important since reading and writing gave him the advantage to become a free man; this excerpt gives a lesson on why education is pivotal to gaining knowledge to have a sense of individuality.

The life of Frederick Douglass was similar in many ways to that of a typical slave during the 1800’s. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass shows both highlights and lowlights from Douglass’ time as a slave. While there were many similarities between he and the common slave, there are certain aspects of his life that make him uncommon, such as his ability to read. When comparing pieces of literature from former slaves to that of Frederick Douglass, the reader may assume that Douglass’ life of slavery was unique compared to the others.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, depicts a vivid reality of the hardships endured by the African American culture in the period of slavery. One of the many things shown in Frederick's narrative is how slaves, in their own personal way, resisted their masters authority. Another is how slaves were able to create their own autonomous culture within the brutal system in which they were bound. There are many examples in the narrative where Frederick tries to show the resistance of the slaves. The resistors did not go unpunished though, they were punished to the severity of death. Fredrick tells of these instances with a startling sense of casualness, which seems rather

Since ancient times historians always examined artifacts and sources of different writings. The purpose of examining artifacts and writings were to find the time period, the place of its origin and whether they are primary or secondary sources. Primary sources are materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event/ topic under consideration either as participants or as witness. Some examples of primary sources are decrees, letters, newspapers, journals, birth and death registries etc. Secondary sources are those when a person was not present at the time of the event. Examples of secondary sources may include books, articles etc. Now, this brings to our discussion - is Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass a primary source? Even though people may different opinions about the autobiography of Frederick Douglass being a primary source, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is a primary source because it mentions his purpose for writing, it clarifies the arguments made by Frederick Douglass, and finally, it illustrates the credibility of the author.

Writing in the favor of black people has always remained controversial from the very beginning. Critics regard such writing as “a highly conventionalized genre” indicating that “its status as literature was long disputed but the literary merits of its most famous example such as Frederick Douglass 's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass…are widely recognized today.” (Ryan:537) Despite of such severe resistance, writers like Douglass have penned down their autobiography to present the misery of their fellow beings.

Published in 1845, ‘Narrative of life of Frederick Douglass an American slave written by himself’ is still the most highly acclaimed American autobiography ever written. It was published seven years after Douglass escaped from his life as a slave in Maryland. It describes his experience of being slave and his psychological insights into the slave-master relationship. The main focus is on ‘How he learn to read and write ‘and ‘the pain of slavery.’ The goal of this paper is to bring more insight analysis of his narrative life through the most famous two chapter’s in which he defines, “How he learn to read and write” and “The pain of slavery.” To achieve this goal, the paper is organized into four main sections. First, author background and

Define who Frederick Douglass was and provide a summary of his book, narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass: an American slave 1845.

Frederick Douglass had specific audiences that he wanted to either relate to or to get across a point to. African American people that had endured slavery were an intended audience because Frederick Douglass states things such as “Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years. I finally succeeded in learning how to read and write” and “I was compelled to resort to various stratagems”. Those sentences by Frederick Douglass show that it was not an easy time for him and the levels or trials that he went through to be someone who was not illiterate. Frederick Douglass never once was one to give up on the need to learn to read and write, so that shows that Frederick Douglass thought that it was important for the African American people to be as well educated as the caucasian Americans were. The caucasian Americans were Frederick’s intended audience because of Frederick’s use of contrast throughout the extract. Frederick tells how his mistress had changed on him from being a helpful, loving, and nice woman to an evil spirited, bitter brute

Throughout the history of slavery in the United States, it was common practice not only for slaveholders to neglect to teach their slaves to read or write, but also for them to outright forbid literacy among slaves. This was done in order to limit the slaves knowledge and modes of communication, making it more difficult for them to learn about the abolitionist movement or for for them to share their situation with the world outside of slavery. Like many other slaves, Frederick Douglass was not allowed to learn to read or write. In his autobiography; “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass retells how he managed to become literate in a time where most African Americans were forbidden from literacy, and how this knowledge allowed him to eventually escape slavery.