Preview

Frederick Douglass Theme Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
583 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass Theme Analysis
There are a number of important themes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Themes not only occur frequently throughout The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, but are connected in various ways. Inequality and Christianity in terms of its true values within the institution of Slavery are prominent themes in Douglass’s narrative.
Primarily, one of the most prominent themes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is inequality. Douglass attempts to show how African American slaves are simply human beings like their whites, although there are numerous instances showing how many whites did not accept slaves as human. Frederick Douglass experiences the racial inequities at an early age and states:
“I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell his birhday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (Douglass 13).
Including the fact that he did not know the details of his background is an important part of the narrative since it shows an early encounter of inequality, but goes on telling the difference between the white and black children. Descriptions of inequality fill the first half of the book revealing the worth of a slave when Douglass states:
“We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married ands single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (Douglass 51).
Given these points, Douglass wants to appeal to readers’ pathos revealing the humanity of both him and other slaves.
However, another prominent theme in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Sharon McElwee’s literary analysis of Frederic Douglass literary piece, “The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass,” Sharon breaks down the different key elements in Douglass’ story that make it so outstanding. Frederick Douglass is famous for his speech given during a time where slavery was still considered acceptable and was used by most wealthy white. Slavery was not viewed as cruel, but a valuable business that could earn them money. Although Douglass was not alone, his speech stands out among the others who were fighting for their freedom.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, is a story about Frederick Douglass’s life as a slave and how he goes on his quest to achieve freedom. Douglass was born into slavery and goes from master to master, and he finally sees the power of education when he reaches Baltimore to work for some new people. Here Douglass begins to learn how to read and write and he uses this to his advantage in hopes of becoming free one day. He manages to teach himself how to read in secret and then helps the other slaves become more literate. Eventually Douglass does manage to escape but he doesn’t stop there, he becomes an activist himself in hopes of ending all slavery one day. Through this book, Douglass reveals that learning is essential in order to achieve freedom, friends can help you to achieve your goals, and that slavery can have a very negative effect on a slave’s mind.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slavery, the dark beast that consumes, devours, and pillages the souls of those who are forced to within its bounds and those who think they are the powerful controllers of this filth they call business. This act is the pinnacle of human ignorance, they use it as the building blocks for their “trade,” and treat these people no more than replaceable property that can be bought, sold, and beaten on a whim. The narrative of Frederick Douglass is a tale about a boy who is coming of age in a world that does not accept him for who he is and it is also told as a horror that depicts what we can only imagine as the tragedies placed on these people in these institutions of slavery. It is understood as a chronicle of his life telling us his story from childhood to manhood and all that is in between, whilst all this is going on he vividly mixes pathological appeals to make us feel for him and all his brethren that share his burden. His narrative is a map from slavery to freedom where he, in the beginning, was a slave of both body and mind. But as the story progresses we see his transformation to becoming a free man both of the law and of the mind. He focuses on emotion and the building up of his character to show us what he over time has become. This primarily serves to make the reader want to follow his cause all the more because of his elegant and intelligent style of mixing appeals. Through his effective use of anecdotes and vivid imagery he shows us his different epiphanies over time, and creates appeals to his character by showing us how he as a person has matured, and his reader’s emotion giving us the ability to feel for his situation in a more real sense. This helps argue that the institution of slavery is a parasitic bug that infects the slave holder with a false sense of power and weakens the slave in both body and spirit.…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the narrative of Frederick Douglass, during the 19th Century, the conditions slaves experienced were not only cruel, but inhumane. It is a common perception that “cruelty” refers to the physical violence and torture that slaves endure. However, in this passage, Douglass conveys the degrading treatment towards young slaves in the plantation, as if they were domesticated animals. The slaves were deprived of freedom and basic human rights. They were not only denied of racial equality, they weren’t even recognized as actual human beings.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Basketball: a game that requires quickness, strength, intelligence, and focus on both the offensive and defensive end. It is difficult, though, to play this game and maintain these skills when you’re defending or being defended by the lightning-fast Sean Michael Frank.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass has a great advantage in appealing to his audience as majority of his readers may be less familiarized with the setting of a plantation, and more familiar with the setting of a city, which allows them to relate to his story more. However, Douglass has a good idea of what it means to have to relate and conform to a foreign life, as an escaped slave. He discusses his new life as a freedman in the narrative, and especially how the cuts of slavery still sting and run deep in his life. He feels as if he is unable to be at peace if so many he knows are still living lives of undecided servitude at the will of cruel masters, and that he will never be able to adapt to society this way. To represent his feelings to the reader, he occasionally writes of incidents where he felt out of place in his new society, and he occasionally vents to the reader of what it feels like to live in such a dramatically different way. Stating a long list of perilous situations he finds comfortably comparable to slavery, he writes, “Let him be a fugitive slave in a strange land--a land given up to be the hunting-ground for slaveholders--whose inhabitants are legalized kidnappers--where he is every moment subjected to the terrible liability of being seized upon by his…

    • 2006 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lab Questions

    • 531 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How is positive parenting different from negative parenting? Which do you think is more effective? Why?…

    • 531 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass’s sad tone helps the reader understand the effect that his literacy had on his thoughts and feelings toward slavery. Douglass describes how his mistress had given him “the inch” that he needed to learn to read and how he used bread to convince the little white children to teach him. He soon found the knowledge of how horrible his enslavers were. “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 120-121). This quote describes how he is depressed because he had learned the truth of his enslaves and wished that he would forget the truth. Although learning to read was a great ability he had acquired, it was a curse that led…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass portrays the life an American slave through the imagery he uses to reach Pathos. He uses many words that can make the audience feel different ways about their view on slavery. This is revealed when he explains what really happened to slaves and why they are not working for a wage or why they are not given their liberty. To explain further, Douglass is aiming at the heart of the people in the…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Douglass’s autobiography is one of a personal fate and the other a documentation of the horrors of slavery. With his first recollection of his childhood, being the relentless whipping of his aunt Hester and the horrified of shrieks he heard with every blow of the whip. Living in Baltimore for about seven years he went with no hunger, then only to return to a plantation as an adult to suffer the gnawing pain of hunger. He knew the difference of what it was like to be treated with kindness and to live in the callous bondage of slavery. Douglass sought to bring a sense of order to his life by writing his journey from slavery to…

    • 117 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fredrick Douglass

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass: An American Slave is a narrative autobiography written based on Fredrick Douglass’s experiences as a slave. He wrote this book with the purpose of revealing the injustice institution of slavery and to make the statement “slavery is unfair.” Fredrick Douglass supports his arguments about slavery by using pathos, or the appeal to the emotions of the audience, where he attempts to persuade the audience through gain of sympathy. This emotional appeal to the audience can be best shown through the examples of the treatment of his grandmother, the separation between him and his mother, and the beating of his brother.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This memoir was has many issues , but he main issues are that Frederick Douglass has a very difficult time freeing himself, mentally and physically, from slavery, and the treatment of slaves as property. The theme is that ignorance keeps one down and keeps one in bondage , and also that knowledge is power. The characters are very complex in the memoir. Captain Anthony , Douglass’s first master and also thought to be his father. Anthony is the clerk for Colonel Lloyd, managing the plantations and the overseers of those plantations. Anthony is a cruel man who takes pleasure in whipping his slaves, especially Douglass’s Aunt Hester. He is called “Captain” because he once piloted ships up the Chesapeake Bay…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sydney Thompson Professor Dennard History to 1877 15 November 2015 Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave Summary In the narrative written by Fredrick Douglass, Douglass touches many hands-on points that many people, during the time, had no idea what the concept of slavery truly meant and how it not only effected slaves, but also, slaveholders. Douglass did an amazing job of remaining unapologetic and powerful throughout the story. Not only did the reader have a clear view of Douglass's treatment from childhood to adulthood, but he also highlighted focus on things like the treatment of women, the attitude of slaveholders, and how slavery impacted specific people.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This narrative begins with the childhood of Frederick Douglass and ends with his adventures as an abolitionist. He gives insight into his personal recollections of his first awareness of what it meant to be a slave, from his own experiences and his experience as a witness to the brutality of one human being upon another human being. He allows readers through his words to have a front row seat to the world of slavery and the main objective of slavery supporters to dehumanize and oppress another race and culture. The goal of his prose is to raise awareness of the cruelty of man upon the backs of blacks, which subsequently he hoped would end…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dehumanizing Slaves

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Dehumanization of the Enslave: Frederick Douglass The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays