Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassNarrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassNarrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassThe tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted. In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme. He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naпve in understanding his situation. As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery. In Douglass’ narrative the tone is first set as that of an observer, however finishing with his own personal accounts.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
With the progression of time we find Frederick Douglas begin to shift the tone to a focus within himself. The story begins to center around his slave life, his experiences, and less about those around him. It is finally in the second part of the narrative that we see a breakout of Douglass where he demonstrates his individualistic attitude, and his take charge qualities. Instead of creating a tone that centers on the lives of slaves around him, Douglass grabs the reader’s attention by shifting the tone to more personal accounts.
By centering on his own personal story, Douglass is able to capture the attention of his audience. With a more detailed description of events taking place, the reader is trapped into that time period, being able to live out the experience with Douglass. Frederick Douglass’ quest for freedom almost becomes a quest for the reader as well. The tone set during this section of the narrative shows Douglass to be much more in charge than he was as a child. A confident slave, Douglass anticipates his freedom, yet also creating a freedom for himself while still enslaved.
It is at this time that Frederick Douglass learns one of the greatest freedoms of all. He is set free, in an educational sense. Douglass has been taught a few reading lessons form his mistress. Soon after his master discovers this, and commences the teaching at once. Soon thereafter, Frederick Douglass uses some smart tactics to resume his learning. He in a sense manipulates the children around him into teaching him how to read and write. This grand achievement taught Douglass something, as he says, “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I least expected it.” Douglass has discovered a great new freedom and uses this new power to help
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On August 17, 1915, a few few days after his first reading, Frederick Douglass began his next semester in the Great Western School at the Massachusetts General, where he began to graduate as a graduate student. He graduated in November 1917. He was a graduate of the State University of New-York and graduated with a doctorate in science and literature. As he later remembers, “when I graduated from the New York General I thought, ‘You’re the first of the great teachers who have the whole human race to themselves, I can see you doing much better than me, and you’d get a lot less to read than I did.”
I was born in 1763.
As the year rolled on, he came under increasing pressure to publish his own name. When he was twenty-one, he began to notice his own condition: his hair was cut short, and he became unbalanced. His school did not allow of the use of his name; the rest were forced to let that happen. He even said he should “die of anxiety.”
His new father, Frederick Douglass, took him into his home, where he made himself a bed in a very old chair, only covered with a sheet of plastic. Frederick, a man not famous at school, read much and became very interested in business; he sold his shoes in the streets, bought a boat, made his father a big fortune by making his daughter his mistress. He began to have doubts of his abilities, and even was unable to grasp the importance of these subjects. But after four years reading at the General school, while in the hospital, he discovered his ability.
In the early spring of 1918, and as he came off sick, his father decided to buy a pair of blue-white shoes—he says he had only spent half a month in the hospital. But Frederick did not have the time to prepare for bed, so he did not get his father to leave home. Instead, he went to an orphanage, where he stayed for six weeks.
He learned to read at his mother’s home. But at the age of fifteen, he began work, and at sixteen was told that the New York General Hospital had not yet discharged his old “sailboat.” As he continued reading, he met with Frederick’s parents, who were also home to six men.
This led him to read at my father’s home. There he made a list of ten letters, all addressed to his father. His handwriting was simple, yet he recognized his father as a man of great talent. In one letter, which he had done for a while, Frederick wrote that the General “wishes to come back, to me, when I am discharged from hospital.”
It was at