The Pros And Cons Of Psychological Slavery

The author’s diction illustrates Douglass view of the world around him and his feelings about a community created by fear and injustices. “The wretchedness of slavery” provoked Douglass to “trust no man”, which gave him the sense of feeling “perfectly helpless.” Being imprisoned in slavery for so long caused Douglass to witness the evils of man and experienced the cruelty of being alone. Even more when the “ferocious beats” showed their “greediness to swallow” it left Douglass “toil-worn and whip-scarred.” As time passed by Douglass’ desire for freedom has grown. However, when he does escape he puts himself in his own state of slavery that is run by fear. Douglass’ desires has not even freed him, but it also allowed him to live in life without

Next, the psychological trauma will be examined, in particular the valuation and division of slaves. Slaveholders deemed slaves as valuable assets such as clothes, furniture, pigs, and horses which was how slaves were sold and traded. By this method, slave masters would mentally engrain the message to slaves that they were not, indeed, human beings, but rather items of personal belongings. As a result, slaves did not know their self-worth. Another method of psychological distress would be to divide slaves from their families. In this effort, slaves were both stripped of both their morale and identity. The very first chapter of Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass proves this assertion.

After about nine chapters detailing his slave life, he says, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” (Douglass, 75) He then goes on to describe the turning point for him that sparked his quest for freedom. By structuring his narrative this way, he reveals both sides- how slavery broke him “in body, soul, and spirit” (Douglass, 73) and how it eventually “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom” within him (Douglass, 80). In doing so, he gives the reader an insight into how he became himself, and reinforces the evils of slavery in the way it shapes a man’s life. Douglass’ use of diction and structure effectively persuades the reader of the barbarity and inhumanity that comes as a result of slavery.

While the narrative’s purpose is mainly to describe the transformation from a slave to a free man, it is also to describe the transformation from a man into a slave. The passage from The Narrative and Life of Frederick Douglass depicts Douglass’s descent into the most brutal conditions of slavery and his reaffirmation of his desire to be free. Under the possession of Mr. Covey, Douglass finds himself to be a broken spirit confined to the bonds of slavery, though later transitions to describe the reigniting of his few expiring embers of freedom. The passage enforces his rage and aggression towards slavery, but the strength of the third paragraph also brings to life his desire for freedom and his willingness to act on the incentive.

The narrative piece written by Frederick Douglass is very descriptive and, through the use of rhetorical language, effective in describing his view of a slave’s life once freed. The opening line creates a clear introduction for what is to come, as he state, “ the wretchedness of slavery and the blessedness of freedom were perpetually before me.”

As Douglass began to acquire a greater understanding of his condition through reading, he felt as if “the silver trump of freedom had roused [his] soul to eternal wakefulness.”20 Douglass’s use of the word silver helps express the precious nature of freedom, as well as the idea that it’s beckoning the enslaved with its gleam. Through the contrast between the purity of freedom and the corruption of slavery, Douglass’s choice of words humanizes himself because it demonstrates his attention to detail as he constructed this narrative. Likewise, he expresses that “[the slaves selected to go to the Great House Farm] would make [woods] reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joys and the deepest sadness.”21 Douglass's usage of juxtaposition to draw attention to the vastness of emotion expressed by these songs demonstrates his own humanity, for this selection highlights Douglass's talent to capture the emotional peaks and troughs that are endured by

Douglass’s ethos is never more apparent than the preface preceding the story. This introductory note provides a rich background of Douglass’s life as a former slave and transformation into a famous abolitionist, serving as authentication that the piece was written by a literate and educated African American. For instance, in an excerpt

  “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. 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 of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.”

In this passage from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the third paragraph is distinguished from the rest because of the language and syntax used. This distinction contributes to Douglass’ rhetorical purpose of the passage, which is to show that a slave’s ambition cannot be extinguished for very long. In the first paragraph, Douglass talks about how Mr. Covey made him “broken in body, soul, and spirit.” However, through his writing in the third paragraph, Douglass shows how that wasn’t the case for long, as he details his hopes and plans for freedom.

Frederick Douglass weaves powerful and effective syntax throughout his narrative to show the way slavery can impact someone’s mental and emotional being. Firstly, Douglass employs rhetorical questions in order to reveal his inner turmoil. In asking the questions, “Is there any God? Why am I a slave?” Douglass allows the reader to see how at the time, he was at his breaking point and at a desperate period in his life. He begged to know the answer to these questions because he didn’t understand why he was suffering while others were thriving. By allowing the reader to peer into Douglass’s mental state, the reader can understand the wave of emotions he underwent due to the nature of slavery; it can be inferred that it greatly changes a person,

“The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is often told with a harsh and unemotional tone; it is this euphemistic style that gives the reader a keen insight into the writer's epoch as a slave in Maryland during the early 1800’s. Douglass never let us forget that his narrative was true, he wanted the readers to understand the truth that was Douglass's life, in addition the symbols and allusions that populate this book showing the intelligence and sophistication of the writer, while the detached writing also gives the reader another look into that time’s attitude and into Douglass’s own perception.

On page 56, Douglass exclaims,“‘You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip!’”(56). In his cry to the white sails, Douglass highlights the real horrors of slavery by using metaphorical comparisons. He uses kind and joyful words like “merrily” and “gentle gale” to describe the freely moving sails but dark and gloomy words like “sadly” and “bloody whip” to describe himself and his life. This dichotomy is an effective way in which Douglass may have changed the view of slavery in the minds of his readers.

Douglass has said “ The evils most fostered by the slavery and oppression would transfer from their system to the inherent character of their victims. Thus the very crimes of slavery become slaveries best defence. By making the Enslaved a character fit only for slavery, they execute themselves for refusing the make slaves a free man”

If I asked you how does it feel to be beaten and forced to be sold away from your wife and children, would you know? You wouldn’t because you weren’t a slave. Just as Theodore Dwight Weld had written: “Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the field, and make you work without pay as long as you live, would that be justice and kindness, or monstrous injustice and cruelty.” -Theodore Dwight Weld: American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. When you are educated and privileged with the right to freedom, slaves who are chained, struck over and over with whips, and have no proper education, have to deal with their suffering because they are

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the