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Frederick Douglass Class Consciousness Analysis

Decent Essays

Frederick Douglass and his importance to the abolitionist message cannot be understated. He rose above his shackled station in the world and became “unmanageable” (Jacobus 330). He aspired to be more than a slave, emerged to educational levels that they’d been beaten to forget, and he gave them a voice (Jacobus 332) . One of the most striking messages in Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave therefore is his adept narration of the relationship between slave and master. Examining this narration through Marxist theory, it becomes clear that class-consciousness and false consciousness can be seen in the master and slave relationship. Both Frederick Douglass and Karl Marx wrote in discontent of their

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