You take risks every day, know it or not. Even if they aren’t influential, every risk has the potential to teach you a valuable lesson. Lessons like these are seen in many texts. Excerpt from chapter VII of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is an example among two others, "Learning to Read" and, "The Day I Saved a Life." The three texts all have one thing in common: the speakers all took a risk for a lesson to be learned. The two slaves risked their safety for education and the boy who saved a life took a risk when walking up to a stranger in hopes of educating him. First and foremost, in the text, Excerpt from chapter VII of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, The main character Fredrick …show more content…
In this story, the narrator is bold and takes a risk to educate someone. This short story does not include slavery. Instead, it talks about wildlife."The Day I Saved a Life" takes place in Florida, where a young boy is on vacation with his family. He loves sea life. When he sees a fisherman catch a shark to eat, he saves the shark's life. First, the author notices the ecstatic fisherman with the shark and decides he wants to rescue the shark. “I approached the fisherman and asked him to set the shark free.” (paragraph 4) The main character made a risky decision. If he convinced the fisherman to free the shark, he'd succeed and educate another person on wildlife. It was a gamble considering he was walking up to a stranger. Next, the narrator describes how the situation on the beach changed his life. “That day changed me forever and now I fight for sharks’ rights. I have always been an active animal and environmental advocate” (paragraph 5.) The risk the young boy on the beach took affected the rest of his life positively and if he never took a chance such as that, he may never have become the type of person he is. When the narrator decided to take a risk, he had no idea what the outcome might’ve been. He affected the fisherman’s way of thinking. This risk also changed the narrator’s future and career path. This was all because he wanted to educate
By using helplessness in the story, Richard Connell creates suspenseful situations. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford falls off the yacht and is left in the ocean. Nobody hears his cries for help, as they are “pinched off short as the bloodwarm waters of the Caribbean sea closed over his head”(15). While reading this, the reader feels the hopeless situation as they watch Rainsford struggle. The desperation is doubtless; the readers are hoping the yacht will notice he is gone and will come after him, but knowing that it probably will not.
The narrative illustrates many instances of Douglass’s courage on his journey. Freedom was not given to him. He had to find it himself and stopped at nothing until the day that slavery was abolished.
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals a way to acquire freedom through education. As a child, Frederick Douglass possessed no knowledge of his genuine identity. A desire to obtain such information generated the feelings of sadness, unhappiness, and misery
Once Mr. Auld finds that Mrs. Auld is teaching Douglass to read, Mrs. Auld is told that it is “unsafe” when a “slave [learns] to read” (Douglass 20). This experience shows Douglass that if he continues to become more educated, he will be treated more and more inhumanely because owners will think he is a “threat” to them. Even though being a “threat” merely means losing money at most, it is enough for slave owners to choose not to educate their slaves. While Douglass felt evocative of this experience, he realized that the experience showed him “the pathway from slavery” (Douglass 20). From that moment on, Douglass knew that at some point in his life, he would be a free man, no matter what it took.
Frederick Douglass’s determination freed him from slavery while Henry Fleming’s determination led him to finally earn the courageous gratification he strived for. Douglass is aware of the physical destruction slavery has on a person and is determined to escape and abolish that. Douglass understands the withhold in capability being illiterate has on a person, and he was determined to teach himself how to read and write. Fleming’s determination allowed him to achieve his goal of becoming a courageous hero, although it was not an easy task. Fleming entered the War as a youthful, innocent, soldier and transformed into a tried and trustworthy man.
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass puts into words the story of his escape from slavery and his journey of becoming a well-educated and inspiring freeman. Douglass’ voyage to freedom was highly influenced and aided by his self-education. Douglass offers two juxtaposing opinions of education & literacy in slave culture one being that education is the road to freedom from slavery the other being that education is what causes slavery to be so miserable. These conflicting viewpoints offer an interesting insight into the horrors of slavery. Douglass believes his education is what aided him in breaking free from the chains of slavery.
Although Douglass was empowered by his education, he discovered that enlightenment can create a new type of confinement. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes educational experiences throughout his life to suggest that knowledge can be both
The Narrative written by Fredrick Douglass was an important book and was a big part of contributing to what we know about the history of slavery. The narrative involved the troubles slaves and Fredrick would go through and how they felt in those horrible moments of their lives. For Fredrick to be free he needed to disguise himself as a sailor and he boarded a northbound train. Sometimes we don’t realize how good freedom really is until we lose it. The book talks about the struggle for freedom, and the horrors of slavery both country and city slaves.
The narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass shows how risk taking is important for your future. When Frederick Douglass was enslaved, he learned to read and write. However, it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write, so he had to take risks and use clever strategies. Frederick Douglass explains, “The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.”
Oftentimes people do small things and believe they do not make a difference in their livelihoods, but find out how much of an impact such a small thing can make. In “ A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury. A hunter by the name of Eckels wants to experience hunting a creature from many decades ago, however, he ends up fumbling into the prohibited area, without knowing. He meddled with the future and entirety and now has to pay the consequences he has created. Little things can make a great difference, sometimes the tiniest things can have the biggest impact on something.
Douglass' story is a detailed and personal account of the horrors of slavery, while also highlighting the perseverance and determination of those who fought for freedom. The themes 6explored in this story are still relevant today, as individuals and communities struggle for equality and justice. Douglass's message that education is the key to freedom and empowerment is as relevant today as it has ever been, emphasizing the transformative power of knowledge on individuals and societies. Douglass's narrative serves as a reminder that the struggle for freedom and equality is ongoing and that education and knowledge are powerful tools in the fight against
In everyone's lives, there is an eye opening experience that changes their perspective on life. The slave narrative, Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, tells a story about the struggles the author goes through during his grueling life during and after being enslaved. During the book, Douglass goes through so much during his life, including hardships such as beatings, starvation, and depression. Along with the bad things, he also experiences some good things including escaping, discovering literacy and enlightening himself and others about the awful aspects of slavery. Frederick Douglass manages to free himself not only physically, but also mentally from the hardships of slavery.
Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of
Even though all 3 texts have different outcomes, they all teach a valuable lesson. Risks can change someone’s life forever. For example, in the text, “The day I saved a life,” a 12-year-old boy named Thomas Ponce saved a shark's life, which had then changed his life forever. It was December 16th, 2011,
Frederick Douglass, the author, of Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, makes an effective argument against slavery, by utilizing a variety of persuasive techniques. Douglass’ strategic approach to appeal to the reader’s emotions, logicality, and morality is undoubtedly compelling the reader to accept Douglass as a credible writer. Throughout the entire narrative Douglass consistently appeals to the emotions of the readers by evoking specific emotional reactions such as sympathy and anger within the reader. In the second chapter of the narrative the author describes a violent encounter involving a slaveholder and bondsmen.