Similarities Between Douglass And Plato

As a guitarist, I have desire my guitar to produce music that is accurate, professional, and beautifully sounding. When first beginning to play the guitar, my guitar did not produce these sounds, but I worked tirelessly to reach that musical perfection for which I hungered and admired about more mature players. Drawing from this example, two men in history shared this attitude in pursuit of perfection: Frederick Douglass and Plato. Respectively, one desired a racially equal nation not plagued by slavery and the latter yearned for the complete nourishment of the soul. Although living in different time periods, these two men are visionaries, seeing beyond what is temporal. I argue that Frederick Douglass embodies the Platonic pursuit of The True,

These nourish the soul’s wings, which grow best in their presence” (Phaedrus 32). Here, Plato recognizes that the soul can arrive at a better place that is Good. Douglass also sees this ability in The United States when he concludes his speech as he proclaims his hope for the nation, “Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country” (Douglass 17). This quote shows a hope for a better state of the Nation, one that Douglass sees beyond the temporal state of the present. Socrates ultimately wants to nourish the soul to lead it to Goodness, so too does Douglass hope in the future Goodness of the nation. Because Douglass can see past the present state of America, Plato would consequently agree that his outlook on freedom holds all intentions of the

In his conversation with Callicles in Gorgias, Socrates explains to him, “Yet consider: those that you call good, don’t you call them good because of the presence of good in them, just as you call beautiful those in whom beauty is present” (Gorgias 69). There must be beauty present to deem something as Beautiful. So, in the context of Douglass’s speech, is the state of The United States Beautiful? Douglass unveils the dishonest mask of freedom and openly reveals the hurt of the enslaved, living alongside the joy of the free. He exposes this hypocrisy of freedom when he says, “There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray…that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun…”(Douglass 11). The free express their joy outwardly, but it is a mask that covers the co-existing ugliness of slavery that Douglass describes here. Although he is able to name this co-existence of the joy and pain, painting pictures of beauty and ugliness, it is crucial to understand that Douglass is still able to picture the Beauty he craves, much like how Plato views the Beauty of the flawed human