Book Report on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Book Report on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The author of this book is Douglass Fredric who is of American Origin. He was born in 1818 and died in 1895. He was author and an abolitionist besides being a lecturer. In his life, he wrote three autobiographies, which are A Narrative on the life of Fredric Douglass and American slave in 1845 as well as my bondage and my freedom, which he wrote in 1855. In this report, the focus is on the first autobiography, A Narrative of Frederic Douglass.
The narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass can be likened with a map, which provides the path from slavery to freedom in the United States. The book authored by Frederick Douglass starts by presenting Douglass as a slave not only in the body but also in his way of thinking. The ending of the book on the other hand shows Douglass achieving freedoms in both the body and mind. In this map to freedom as illustrated in the book, the mile markers are the epiphanies that occur in series and his ability to realize himself in the process. The realization episodes provide the turning points in his life and the means by which he achieves freedom as well as the lessons that he learns in the whole process (Douglass, 1845).
Douglass’ realization on the meaning of slavery provides the first epiphany. Douglass’ life starts as a slave when he is born in a farm by the name Colonel Lloyd but because he is a child, he escapes most mistreatments that slaves undergo. For instance in his young age, he witness his Aunt being whipped but himself escapes the beating by virtue of being young. However, Douglass still suffers oblivious of what is happening. In his entire life, he never happens to know his father and even though he met his mother, it was later in life before she died. To make it worse, he is denied an opportunity to attend the burial of his mother. This kind of life has been the order of the day for Douglass and therefore he even after being denied the privileges to interact with his parents and even attend the funeral to his mother he is oblivious that this is not normal for a human being to be treated that way. Therefore, when he realizes the first time that he is a slave it marks his first turning point but in a simplistic manner. This is nevertheless paramount to him as he starts understanding what slavery entails.
The second turning point in his life occurs at the age of seven when Douglass was assigned new masters to work for in Baltimore. He was not familiar with Baltimore and life appeared hard for him due to a series of new experiences he went through. However, Douglass does not fail to learn the significance of education in Baltimore. This epiphany occurs when learns how to read under the teaching of the masters wife. In the process of the wife teaching him, trouble arises between the wife and her husband because the husband does not support the idea. As a result, Douglass starts learning how to read by himself. He realizes that because of slaves being ignorant they continue to serve their masters who are not in any way better than the slaves are. He suddenly realizes how easy it would be to acquire freedom through education and how hard it would be for the masters to stop slaves from fighting for their freedom. In his youth, he starts fighting for freedom and even talks bask to his master. This leads the master to assign him a notorious covey who discourages Douglass in his fight for freedom. This method of killing Douglass’ spirit works for the master and Douglass state of mind is demeaned to that of an animal, which marks the most discouraging moment in his life (Douglass, 1845).
The third epiphany occurs when Douglass makes up his mind not to be enslaved any more. He opts to die fighting for freedom than being a slave. At one time, the covey tries to fight him and engages him in a fight for two hours after which the covey leaves him disappointed. He makes a vow never to let anyone fight him and this marks the end of this agony in his life. Douglass serving many masters at different times as he continued seeking freedom follows this turning point. The first time he tried to escape but fails. However, he succeeds in his second attempt, finds his way to New York and Later goes to Massachusetts. Despite the success to escape, he still realizes there is a long journey ahead. He wants every form of slavery to be abolished after which he would regard himself successfully free. In addition to being an abolitionist of slavery, he writes the book in order to educate other slaves on how to emulate his ambitions in fighting for their freedom. This is the main reason why he writes the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”.
In the book, there are Fundamental ideas that Douglass explore, which form the themes in his work. This makes Douglass a popular narrative. The first theme is on ignorance used as a tool to exercise slavery. The whites ensure their slaves are not educated to avoid rebellion. Most people did not know that slavery is a fabricated state not destined for human beings. The blacks are considered not effective with responsibilities in the civil society and are better placed as workers for the whites. The slaves are not informed of basic things like time they were born and their paternity, which strengthen their ignorance and deny them the sense of identity.
Another theme is the knowledge as a map to acquire freedom. After realising how the slaves are denied education in order to retain them as slaves the latter are advised to pursue education as the only path to freedom. Douglass realizes the secret in education when Hugh Auld stops his wife from teaching him so that Douglass is not ruined as a slave. It is clear that to Douglass that this is the strategy that whites are using to manage slavery. Douglass shows how he frees himself through his own education as a tool. However, Douglass suggests that although education is the tool to slavery, it works by awakening the mind of the slave to realize the sufferings he or she is going through. Once the slaves are aware of the injustice practised on them, they rebel their masters. The final freedom according to Douglass must be accompanied with great danger as they attempt to make a physical escape (Oakes, 2007).
The theme of damaging effect of slavery even to the masters is clear evidence that slavery is evil to all humanity involved. Douglass uses this to depict slavery as unnatural act to humanity. The masters’ moral health becomes detrimental over time. For example, slave owners end up raping their slaves and others become adulterous. Many masters are depicted to have sired children with female slave, which lowered unity in their families. The father master is forced to subject his own children to punishment or even sell them to other masters. Other masters like Auld opt to remain blind over the injustice they commit to their slaves.
Another theme depicted in this book is how slaveholding perverse Christianity. The works of Douglass draw a line between false Christians and true Christians. In his work, he categorizes Christianity into that of Christ and another of the land. The Christianity practised by slaveholders is a form of hypocrisy to enforce their self-righteous brutality. In order to make the distinction clear Douglass shows the contradiction between the injustice on slaves such as violence and the peaceful tenets of Christianity.
Victimization of female slaves is another theme when women slaves are depicted in Douglass’ work as vivid images instead of being used as main characters. They represent images of bodies destined just for use. For example, Douglass Aunt and Henrietta are only appearing when being mistreated by their masters. This depiction is intended to incite suffering among the readers in order for the reader to understand how unnatural slavery is (Russell, S2005).
Management of slaves as properties is a theme that shows the discrepancy between human beings being used as slaves and property by their masters. The slaves are exchanged between masters without considering the damage that result from separation from their families. As long as a slave is productive physically then he or she is valuable. This kind of treatment of slaves like animals without reason is unnatural. The last theme is freedom in the city, where the settings in Douglass’ work alternate between the city of Baltimore and rural settings of Maryland. The city represents freedom that Douglass and other slaves aspire to have. The standards of living in the city enables the holders of slaves to be human, who makes the city more open according to Douglass. Douglass for the first time meets some whites in the city who are opposed to slavery and they regard him as a human. In contrast, the owners of slaves depict the rural setting as a place for surveillance (McKivigan, 2004).
In his work, Douglass uses symbols, which are presented in form of characters, objects as well as colours in order to deliver abstract concepts. For example, in his work, we see white-sailed ships that Douglass experience at Chesapeake Bay. At this time, he was low spiritually the first time he was subjected to Covey. This object comes as a vision to Douglass that signifies his demoralized spirit. The movement of the ship between ports represent freedom in the life of Douglass. The colour of the ships is white and Douglass correlates this with white Angels. This link well with how spiritualism brings freedom for humanity. Another object is the root that Douglass is given by Sandy which is believed to have special power of protection against whipping. Although Douglass does not belief in the supposed powers in the roots, he accepts it to avoid disappointment. He regards this as superstation and a symbol of African traditions towards religion. The Columbian Orator that Douglass encounters at the age of 12 is essays and poems about politics when he is able to read. This equips Douglass with the knowledge about the injustice the slaves were subjected. He pays special attention to master-slave dialogue in order to understand why slavery is condemned. This is a symbol of both human rights and eloquence (Phillips, 2000).
The book is well organized and the author uses all the literally devices to strengthen his work. Any reader who encounters his book is inspired and the value of human being in the society is rooted in his or her mind. The book is both educative and enjoyable to read.