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Frederick Douglass Text Analysis

447 Words2 Pages

The events that take place in chapters five through eight allow the audience to experience more of a better time in the life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass’ old master allows him to be sold to the new and kind masters, named Mr. and Mrs. Auld. While under the control of these masters, Douglass learns how to read from Mrs. Auld very a brief time, before she is told not to do it, and how to write from the help of many white friends. His masters soon become harsher on him, but when he has to leave them for a month to be accounted for on his old master’s land, he misses them and their kindness. Eventually the new masters force Douglass to move away from Baltimore, and he experiences the sadness of separating from people that he likes. My Reaction: This part of the text made me feel more hopeful for Frederick Douglass. Every …show more content…

It taught me that not every white person was rude to the slaves. The kindness of the white children, and even his masters are an example of that. Also, it means a lot to know that some slaves are treated somewhat humane and not so animal-like. Frederick Douglass taught himself to read and write, and that is meaningful because he is able to get the education that he morally deserves to get. My Analysis: Frederick Douglass most likely wrote this text to show that value that being nice to others has on their lives. While writing this book years after he was a slave, Douglass still remembers that young, white boys who helped him learn to read. This is also why the text is important. It shows that being nice to others has the potential to impact their lives in a positive way, such as it did for Frederick Douglass. My Questions: 1. Would Frederick have spent the last few days of his grandmother’s life with her if it meant that he would have to leave his master’s house? 2. How was Frederick able to find out how his grandmother spent the rest of her life? Was it after he was

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Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.

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Douglass uses his Narrative to share his position is by telling his audience how unfairly Douglass is treated and how white men or slaveholders take control of the life of a slave because in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on page 1 paragraph 1 it says, The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old.” What this piece of evidence is demonstrates is that Frederick Douglass did not even now his own birth and that he had to guess on what his master said and that his master knows more what Frederick knows about his life. Another way that Douglass’s uses his Narrative to share his position is by telling their audience how unfairly Frederick and many other slaves were treated because because in the Document “‘ Pro Slavery Arguments South’’ on paragraph 6 it says,”Southern slaveholders pro-slavery arguments defended the interest of the plantation owners against attempts by abolitionists, lower classes, and non-whites to institute a more equal social structure.”

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The stories of slaves lives do horror him because they are experiences that very much could happen to him. Frederick is different than most slaves because he has knowledge of the things around him. Hope was created from learning, and as long he keeps on striving to be free, he will be a free man. Now as we continue to read he is a free

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In Frederick Douglass's essay "Learning to read and write” he recalls the journey to enlightenment showcasing the emotions of joy, hunger, heartache and hope. For example learning to read sparked an unstoppable joy for knowledge. In addition the discovery of that knowledge found Douglass hungry for more. Also the quest for intelligence came at a price causing him a great amount of heartache. Finally a simple thought of the future brought the hope that ultimately inspired him to persevere and succeed in learning to read and write.

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