...Fredrick Douglass final essay Subpoint 4: The Christianity of the slaveholders is hypocritical and used to justify their actions. There are two forms of Christianity represented in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and each are described and function differently throughout the text. Based on Douglass’ personal recollections and thoughts in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there are both real and false versions of religion and generally, the real or “true” form of Christianity is practiced by himself as well as some whites who are opposed to slavery. The false form of religion, or what the author explained in one of the important quotes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, “the hypocritical Christianity of this land” (95) is practiced by whites, most notably Mr. Covey, and is a complete bastardization of the true ideals behind genuine Christian thought. Through his discussions of religion that are interspersed throughout The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader gets the sense that slavery and true Christianity are opposing forces and one cannot be present while the other exists. Not only is the simultaneous existence of the true version Christianity with slavery impossible, it appears that even if real Christianity does exist in a pure form, the introduction of slavery corrupts it inevitably and...
Words: 2185 - Pages: 9
...years and to finally succeed in escaping the cruel life as a slave? In the autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Frederick recalls his personal story about his life as a slave. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery, and was ripped away from his mother soon after birth. As he grows up, he is given to several masters, most cruel and inhumane. Frederick faces many cases of abuses, such as being whipped, worked to death, and feeling dehumanized. Despite a slave, he also teaches himself how to read and write, and soon, sets a goal to escape to the North. During his time as a slave, Frederick experiences friendship, love, betrayal, and...
Words: 1436 - Pages: 6
...Human Rights: A Paine in My….Douglass? According to Frederick Douglass, a nineteenth-century northern slave, “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” Thomas Paine, a rebellious eighteenth-century Englishman, finishes and furthermore expands this thought, saying that “those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” While both of these men grew up in separate worlds, miles and years apart, their idealisms and life missions are very much alike. This is evident through the investigation of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Frederick Douglass is the...
Words: 1944 - Pages: 8
...Frederick Douglass Cumulative Essay Courage is the ability to do something right that frightens one. Frederick Douglass had more courage than he believed to have. In many situations, he applied his courage. As stated in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, “he ordered me to take off my clothes… nor did I move to strip myself.” Even though Douglass was afraid of Mr. Covey, he showed courage by keeping his clothes on. Many would’ve easily and effortlessly taken off their clothing. “In this state I appeared before my master, humbly entreating him to interpose his authority for my protection. I told him all the circumstances as well as I could, and it seemed, as I spoke, at times to affect him.” Ignoring the consequences he might receive, Frederick was bold and courageous going to his master to ask for help....
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...Getting whipped every week just because your slave master feels has the right to whip you.There's one thing that saved a man named Frederick Douglass and that’s hope. In the Narrative of the Life of FREDERICK DOUGLASS the author Frederick Douglass himself uses several literary techniques to reveal to us how hope helped Frederick Douglass become a freeman. Throughout the narrative many conflicts happened involving Frederick Douglass.I believe it was a battle against society that Douglass was fighting.Society felt Douglass should serve his master accordingly.Douglass struggled to free himself mentally and physically. His mind cleared after a fight with Covey.Covey is a white farmer who is known for taming troublesome slaves. The text states, "This battle with Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave... and revived me a sense of my own manhood." After this battle Covey...
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
...Although Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
Words: 1647 - Pages: 7
...Although throughout the Narrative, Frederick Douglass has a tendency to skip around often and does not always follow a completely chronological ordering, the work begins with his childhood. Frederick Douglass gives a summary of how he, like many other slave children, has no idea when his birthday is but as far he can guess it must have been around 1818. He was separated from his mother right after he was born (which he imagines was because they did not want the bonds of family to develop naturally between families) but recalls how sometimes she would walk at night from a neighboring plantation to sleep with him. As this important part of this summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” makes clear, he tells the reader that she died but because of his lack of connection with her the news did not have much of an impact on him. All Frederick Douglass knows about his father is that he is a white man based on his light skin tone and rumors he’s heard to confirm it. Frederick Douglass then gives the reader a brutal short summary of that the rape of female slaves by their white masters actually benefits slavery because by law the products of the rape become slaves themselves. When you’re reading this analysis and summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and throughout the text itself, you should notice the way Douglass makes reference not just to the cruelty of slavery as an institution, but also how he shows the way it has become institutionalized through...
Words: 2037 - Pages: 9
...Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, Written by himself. New York: Blight, 2003. Frederick Douglass was known as the most important African American leader and intellectual in the 19th century. He became a major figure in the crusade for abolition, the drama of emancipation and the effort to give meaning to black freedom during reconstruction. He tells stories about the 20 years of living the life as slave to his amazing and courageous escape. Douglass portrayed the core meaning of slavery, for both individuals and of the nation in his narrative. His multiple meanings of freedom as an idea and reality of mind and body and of the consequences of its denial were his themes in the book. The narrative also uncovers Douglass’s symbolic strategies in moral and economic slavery, the master-slave relationship, the psychology of slaveholder, the aims and arguments of abolitionists and the impending political crisis between North and South. He believed in equal rights as throughout his narrative dreamed of being free and wondered why slaves where treated the way they were. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He never new his exact age as there was never any record of his birth. Not knowing this information made him realize early on that there was a difference and unfairness in equality as he commented on he never met a slave in his life who could tell when their birthday was or how old they were. He continued saying...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...violence always has a meaning behind it. This essay is going to compare how the titles The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass , an American Slave and The Crucible can relate to violence on how it is described in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas E. Foster, he explains how violence has a variety of ways to be expressed as well as many meanings to be understood. He states , “ It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent.” These describe in literature why violence is a key part of the story. Violence in literature always has a meaning never usually you will find it meaningless. Foster states , “Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...In this Short Story Critical Essay on “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself”, Frederick Douglass tells a story of himself as an educated African-American going through a harsh experience with his slave owner Mr.Covey. In the Critical essay, Doreen Piano argues that Douglass describe his experience of being a slave in vivid detail from an insight of a slave/master brutal relationship with one another. He support this interpretation by Douglass ability to use literary devices, little knowledge on how to protect themselves, denied basic concepts or identities of themselves by treating them as animals. First, Douglass was able to incorporate a number of literary devices such as imagery to describe...
Words: 813 - Pages: 4
...Frederick Douglass, his Pursuit of Freedom, and the Abomination of American Slavery Frederick Douglass's autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), reveals a multitude of ways in which African Americans suffered under slavery. The Narrative captures the universality of slavery and its many abuses such as the separation of family and friends, daily beatings, backbreaking labor, scarcity of sleep, suppression of individuality, crushing oppression, and intense racism. The turning point in Douglass’s slavery is his stay with slaveholder Covey. The fight with Covey forms the central moment of the text where he is able to symbolically break free from bondage and become an autonomous human being thus enabling his later escape....
Words: 1212 - Pages: 5
...afflicts me; to those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. “Without a formal education Frederick Douglass’s "the narrative of Frederick Douglass" was written to a level of perfection that its message resonated with both blacks and whites and gave a voice to the everyday struggle of a slave and in turn humanizing them emphasizing the intent of the abolitionist movement in that slaves are people, so...
Words: 565 - Pages: 3
...Ernest,Holland Mr.Yoder Eng.lll 1. Odd 12 March Feb.20 2018 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents an insight into the power imbalance between a slave and a slaveholder. In this account, Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave but also the owner. The toxic irresponsible power that the masters hold has a dehumanizing effect on the way they live their lives. This vast amount of control in the hands of one person destroys the good-natured and finest feelings turning them into those of a evil source. With this theme Douglass completes his important visual of slavery as unnatural for all involved. Douglass explains normal action patterns of slaveholders to picture the damaging influences of slavery. Douglass...
Words: 426 - Pages: 2
...Frederick Douglass' memoir "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" has long been noted for its demonstration of Douglass' superior skill with rhetoric. Distributed in 1845, two decades before slavery was abolished, the book is a brutally honest illustration of slavery's dehumanizing impact. By unmistakably establishing his ethos and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses many rhetorical devices to argue for the immorality of slavery. Douglass' narrative weaves multiple anecdotes together, each illustrating a different aspect of slavery's immorality. For example, in chapter eight, Douglass' crippling grandmother is expelled from the plantation because she is too old to work further. Despite her faithful service, even caring for...
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...When individuals are denied the right to reap the benefits of freedom it is expected from them to ask why they are denied such a right. It would then be expected for those in bondage to strive to attain their desired freedom. As seen in Douglass’s slave narrative and Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, the deprivation of their freedom lead them to exceed racial and gender boundaries in order to struggle for power that was denied to them by their environment and cultural expectations. Wherever an individual may be, their surrounding environment serves as a constant reminder of their status or role in society. Frederick Douglass was born a slave in the state of Maryland. Being a slave state, Maryland served as a constant reminder to Douglass of his status in the “peculiar institution.” His environment also depicted the suggested racial inferiority of African-Americans to their white slaveholders. This would cause Douglass from an early age to exercise his agency and question why this was so; “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (Cain 1022). His location in Maryland, however, did reduce the obstacles involved with escaping from slavery. Maryland shared a border line with the northern free-states and it also had a harbor that would provide ships as a means of escape. The knowledge of the close proximity of free-states would help keep the notion of running away alive in Douglass’s mind. An environment...
Words: 1753 - Pages: 8
