Douglass's Motivation

Frederick Douglass's drive is what progresses him throughout the story. He has an overwhelming desire to become more than what he is. He keeps his mind on his goals even when things look bad for him. It seems like the more he gets knocked down, the more motivated he is to get back up and keep going. Instead of getting discouraged and giving up hope, he pushes himself harder every time something tries to hold him back. Not being able to read is a slight set back for Douglass. Mr.Auld scolds Mrs.Auld for simply teaching Douglass three and four letter words and once he sees how upset Mr.Auld becomes over this, his eyes are opened to how important an education is for him. "These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought... From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom."(250-251 Douglass) This part of the story really stood out to me because I think it is a turning point for Douglass. It pushes him to the next step by showing that having an education could help create a way out for him, and once he starts educating himself by reading whatever he can get his hands on, he realizes how wrong and unjust slavery really is. "The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers."(253 Douglass) Reading creates even more of a drive in him and allows him to see things that are hidden and kept away from the other slaves. Douglass's motivation is what makes him different from the others around him. His story should be an inspiration to anyone looking to overcome anything.

Fredrick Douglass

Fredrick Douglass was a renowned speaker, here in America. This is what Douglass said about his first encounter as a field hand: "I left Master Thomas's, house and went to live with Mr. Covey, on the first of January, 1833. I was now, for the first time in my life, a field hand. In my new employment, I found myself even more awkward than a country boy appeared to be in a large city. I had been at my new home but one week before Mr. Covey me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger" (Douglass 262). I can relate to that contrasting my own personel experience as a field hand for the first time in my life. My mother sent me to the field when i was about five years old. Mr, and Mrs taylor was my field drivers, they told me that this was Johnson grass, and that this was morning glory, and that this was her cotton. So learn the difference between them now, because if i come back here and see you chopping down her fine cotton, that she was going to introduce me to old glory. Well when she left i couldn't seem to distinguish any difference in either one, they all seem to look the same way. I was just a chopping and thinking to my self, I didn't come out here to chopp no darn cotton, but to be the water boy. Then out of no where i felt a sting like a whip or something, it was Mrs. Taylor lashing me with a belt, boy didn't i tell you that i was gonna introduce you to old glory? I scream moma, but moma wasn't no where to be found. Douglass further says,"Mr. Covey sent me, very early in the morning of one of our coldest days in the month of January, to the woods, to get a load of wood "  (Douglass 262). I will finish this blog with my opinion of what it must have been like to be made to do things that you don't really want to do. I didn't won't to chop cotton, and i was whipped for not being able to distinguish the difference between, cotton, Johnson grass ,and morning glory. Wow what a life!

"Religion-Indubitable Christianity"

 What did Frederick Douglass stand for? Frederick Douglass was a proud and strong black slave; he stood for Freedom, Truth, and indubitable Christianity. In Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, he wanted the reader to not just visualize freedom, truth, but the hypocrisy of Christianity in the south where slavery was robust.

Today most people see Christianity as the modern day religion, believing it will relieve them of their problems. In history we learn that’s not always the case. Christianity was occasionally used to control people who did not have a clear apprehension of it. Frederick Douglass begins to see and understand this as a slave. Frederic Douglass saw one of his masters beat a young black women slave and use a scripture quote to justify his action. Frederick Douglass replies, “I have seen him tie a lame young women, and whip her with a heavy cow skin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote a Scripture” (Douglass 261). As time went on Frederick Douglass heedfulness becomes keen in the white man definition of Christianity. Fredrick Douglass believes Christianity is a faith for all people of color and not a tool to control but an inspiration to love and heal the broken boundaries of separation and slavery. He makes it plainly clear in his reply, “To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other; I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land” (Douglass 289).

As citizens of the United States we should have faith to love, respect, and unify one another no matter what color he or she is. If we are going to be a leading country of examples for others we can’t lead from behind.

Rising Above

In life, people can knock you down:  Knock you down, kick you, and leave you with a smile.  That seems to be the motives behind the slave owners in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.  The graphic details of these people goes way beyond my level of thinking...I guess my brain just can't wrap around it.  However, Frederick Douglass gave us some valuable information about his life...a life that maybe needed to exist in order to appreciate what we have today and how we live today.  It seems as if he was given enough power to carry on through his pain in order to educate the world...an education that is so honest and pure. "Douglass casts his life as a long process of self-transformation--from an object, or an animal, to a free human being with a name" (Douglass 234).  This quote alone let us know of his inner drive to become someone...to go beyond the life he has lived and strive for something more.  We may not all like where we come from or how we live...what matters is the drive inside you to want to become more.  Douglass did not blame his life and his career as a slave, on the contrary he seemed to embrace what he went through to better himself and others.  "As in rags-to-riches stories, Douglass tells us how he makes a dramatic rise in social status and wealth through virtues such as perseverance  bravery, self-reliance, and determination" (Douglass 235)  "...self-transformation in which the illiterate and unthinking slave is prompted to recognize the injustice of his experience and to insist on his full person-hood, but Douglass reminds us many times along the way that self-transformation always involves a set of opportunities, and that under slightly different conditions, this slave might never have sought out his freedom" (Douglass 235).  This has been an encouraging story for me.  I choose not see this story as a story of hate...or black and white. I see a wonderful story or Resurrection from an old life to a new life.  That fits my life right now.  I was getting knocked down and I chose to make a change and start a new life.  And just knowing what Frederick went through as a slave and more, helps me to stay focused on what I need to do to keep my life going.

I still have hope...

I still have hope to believe that this is not my final destination in life. While reading Frederick Douglass narrative of his life this title stayed on my mind. This reading was priceless to me and very heart touching. I often wondered how Frederick Douglass kept his determination after being broken so many times. " Mr Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute" (Frederick Douglass 264). To me he wasn't a quote unquote normal slave in a way. Yes he had a hard life, but compared to alot of the other slaves in the beginning he was sheilded from alot of the whipping and harsh life of a slave. To be at this point on his journey he was finally pushed to the point of feeling like an animal. He was beat and whipped until he couldn't take it anymore so he decided to do something about it. To be an equal human or shall I say a freed human was all he was in search for. In this part of the story I almost felt like they had "tamed" him, but he had a turning point in the narrative that gave him hope. After all the beatings he fround the courage to stand up to Mr. Covey and show him he was a man. " This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood" (Frederick Douglass 268). This confrontation with Mr. Covey gave him the self confidence he needed to go on in search of his freedom.

The Significance of Graphic Violence in Frederick Douglass' Narrative

I believe Frederick Douglass' narrative of his life was written to move people to the point where they could not possibly condone slavery. With this goal in mind, a kind of scene that has not been present in enlightenment and romantic era texts emerges: the depiction of graphic violence. I believe that Douglass purposely details every moment so that the reader is confronted with the brutality of the slave condition. This is in direct contrast to Frankenstein, where murder is also common, yet described with little to no shock-value.

Douglass' description of his aunt's beatings at the hands Captain Anthony shock the reader as soon as the first chapter with a chilling description of his master's cruelty, "No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin"(Douglass 238). The repeated references to the blood, and the senselessness of the beatings, combine to evoke a strong emotional response in the reader. Because of this desire to impact the reader with the brutality of the slave condition, graphic violence is an important part of Douglass' narrative.

The significance of violence's role in Frankenstein is, I believe, a foil of it's significance in Douglass' slave narrative. Several people are murdered by the bare hands of the monster, even Dr. Frankenstein's own bride is brutally killed on their wedding night. However, Shelley's description of the violent scene is very subdued in comparison to Douglass', "the deathly languor and coldness of the limbs told me, that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips" (Shelley 136). There are no references to blood, or even to the act itself, only the aftermath in which Frankenstein even states he "might have supposed her asleep" (Shelley 136), which is quite the contrast to the picture of violence painted by Douglass.

..A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste..

       "When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her to these heavenly qualities (Frederick Douglass 252)." Reading this narrative brought tears to my eyes. I kept thinking, "How could this lady, whom has a son of her own bare to teach me my ABC's and later come back and attempt to take it away." Mrs. Auld did a 360 and didn't have a care in the world. The narrative says that she was a warm and tender-hearted, anyone in her presence left happy, she gave them comfort. What better feeling than for a slave to be treated like a human- being! The mind is terrible thing to waste and so is the misuse of power and authority. "If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself (Frederick Douglass 252)." During slavery time African Americans didn't have the right to read and write, education was a joke. Till this day you have some people who take life and their education for granted. For example, African Americans complain about how the police or "white officers" misuse their authority by beating and killing African American males. What are you doing to be arrested? We have the priviallege to futher our education, get better paying jobs, become CEO's, own businesses, and atc. What are we doing though, we're robbing, cheating, stealing, and even killing. What's the point of complaining when we aren't doing anything bout the problem. I'm a single mother of a one year old boy, whoms father does nothing. But I can guarntee you that my child will make something of himself. I'm not settling for less. Honeslty we need more fathers to step up and be apart of their son's lives, there is only so much a mother can do. African Americans want to be treated with respect and dignity but our actions say a totally different thing. These election debates have me afraid for my sons future. you have people saying, "Who Romney is gonna have us back in the slavery days." As long as I have breath in my lungs I never want to see my son out in the fields or being beaten or even eating slop. I say all of this to say that men like Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr, and others died for our rights, diginity, and freedom. We need to pick up our community and start putting the pieces back together. We have the necessary tools to futher education, obtain good jobs and many other wonderful things. We have to start somewhere. Lets start in our community.