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Power In Foucault's Panopticon

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The world described by Frederick Douglass in his autobiographical writing shows a different image of America. After the proclamation of independence from Great Britain, slavery seems to become “the Other” and brings about a change in the way of perceiving America and the American dream. This work will attempt to provide a clear understanding of this shift of perspective. In the first part of the paper we will address the concept of power by making reference to one of Michel Foucault’s work and then we will discuss about “the Panopticon”, using critical sources pertaining to the same author. The second part of the paper will make use of the concepts already discussed and apply them to the narrative, disclosing the existing power relations as well as the mechanisms of creating and maintaining them. The final part will offer a conclusion on the issues raised in our paper. The basic principles on which the American Dream is founded were developed in the 17th Century. Based on the ideas and values of equality, liberty, justice and fairness, the Declaration of Independence guaranteed the American people …show more content…

Starting from Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, which was a towerlike structure fashioned so that it would allow simultaneous surveillance of prisoners, Foucault describes how prisons and other institutions continue the panoptic tradition. The Panopticon would make possible the gaze of the warden upon the prisoners to be experimented as perpetual and inescapable. Through the use of psychological manipulation or physical violence the prisoners are made aware of the ever- present gaze and over time the external surveillance is internalized. Although Douglass’s writings precede Foucault’s by more than a century, Cynthia Nilson argues that “Douglass’s vivid descriptions of life as a slave in a racialized society parallel and corroborate Foucault’s

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The idiosyncratic style Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass depicts the discriminatory actions of postcolonial slave owners in the southern United States, which reflects their greed for unpaid labor on their plantations. He employs the metaphor of the book that their masters prohibited them from owning by law throughout the memoir to demonstrate the avarice that drives white slave owners to turn a darker-skinned, intelligent being into a machine for personal benefit for centuries after the colonization of America. Also, the irony further displays the power of greed by expressing the slaveholder’s uncivilized method of forcing another human out of civilization. Furthermore, his use of a paradox of the use of pure religious beliefs to justify a slaveholder’s inhumane treatment reveals their rapacious actions that contradict the teachings of the church.

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Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).

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“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” a doctrine established by our founding fathers and adopted by the United States as the original meaning of the American Dream. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the dissent of the American Dream. As time progresses the meaning of the American Dream became lost, but it still has pertinence to the present. The Declaration of Independence set the basis of what the American Dream meant and why it still has relevance to its people’s live today.

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Utilizing ethos, logos, pathos, and empathy, Douglass paints the portrait of his life as complete as possible, laying bare the horrors of slavery and calling for action. He creates a narrative flow that encapsulates the reader into himself, and forces them through the hell he crawled through to give them these few but full pieces of paper. All the anger, pain, hope, desire, bravery, and fear. Every emotion, every lashing, every aching step is summarized and imprinted into the reader for the sake of humanity’s collective soul, and for the salvation and deliverance of those in bondage. Had Frederick Douglass not have the strong grasp on literature, we might not ever have had such a complete picture of slavery, and might not have solved the issue as completely as we

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The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

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