Frederick Douglass's Helplessness

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In the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, Douglass unfolds the story of his breakthrough from a victim of slavery to a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. In his narrative Douglass emphasis the issue of slavery by reflecting his own helplessness. As Douglass gains a new stature, freedom, he transitions from a servant to a leader, thus progressing from a silent narrator to an active speaker. While a voiceless narrator, Douglass replicates his silence as a slave. In the first half of the book, there is an absence of words such as, “I said” and “I replied” and Douglass never verbally interacts with anyone. Douglass never says these things because, like in the first half of the book, the first half of his life has been silenced.