America is often perceived as a country that values human rights. But on many occasions, this has been invalidated through the objectification of people of all genders, races, and backgrounds. Objectification is the act of treating a person as though they are not human but much rather an object or thing. For instance, Frederick Douglass’s aunt Hester in Narrative of the Life of a Slave by Frederick Douglass and Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Objectification has caused human suffering, not just in the past but today as well.
Frederick Douglass was an African American activist, author, and public speaker born into slavery in 1818. As a slave, Douglass witnessed the brutal beating of his aunt Hester by their master. Douglass says, “I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood”(Douglass 4). His aunt Hester was overpowered as an act of domination and control since she would “disobey” and spend time with male slaves. Slaves were often objectified by their masters for labor or to be bought and sold off like they were items. However, for Aunt Hester, it was more than that, she was used for the pleasure of their master leaving her ripped of her
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She is presented as lonely, desperate, and deprived of attention. Furthermore, the objectification of her personality which is shown throughout the book. The author states, “ She had full, Rugged lips and wide-spread eyes, heavily made up…She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.”(Steinbeck 31), the male characters would regularly sexualize and offensively speak about her. Her death was also a result of objectification because Lennie viewed her as a soft and pretty object to