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How Does The Change In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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In the novel “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass, he reveals how his thinking has changed from the beginning of the passage to the end. He gives examples as to how reading has affected him and what his thoughts on slavery are. Learning to read and freedom were Douglass’ main goals while he was enslaved because he figured out if he could read he could get himself out of slavery and into freedom. In the beginning Douglass became very curious and wanted to know more about freedom, so he read books. Whenever he got the chance to read, he did, he learned to read from poor white children who he bribed with bread. After reading “The Columbian Orator” his views of slavery changed and while reading he had “unabated interest”. The book taught him about the power of truth; the truth was that slavery doesn’t just brutalize the slaves,but it does it to their masters too; he learned this from reading about a slave who convinces his master to emancipate him by saying “some very smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master”. Towards the end he finds that “the more I (Douglass) read …show more content…

In the beginning Douglass thought of freedom as a place of euphoria and peace; he read books to help him learn how to read and write so he could get out of slavery and have freedom. When he was learning to read from the white children he stated “I wish I could be as free as they would be when they got to men”. He thought of his life and the only future for him was to be a “slave for life”. Towards the end “the silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal weakness”. Aiming for freedom gave him strength, but when he began reading and learning about freedom it “now appeared to disappear no more forever” and it caused him to become weak. He began wishing himself dead and regretting his own existence because he losing faith in getting out of

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