Theme Of Injustice In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

In Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie Nolan and her family struggle with many economical and emotional hardships in Brooklyn in the early 1900's. Her mother, Katie, and her father, Johnny, marry and have children at an extremely young age, causing their family's fate to be doomed right from the start. Francie, the older of the two children, has her mother's hard-work ethic, and her father's sentimentality and imagination. Through Francie's fear, humiliation, compassion, sorrow, pride, and disillusionment throughout the novel, she becomes the strong, intelligent woman she is. Francie is a sum of her family's suffering and experiences. With every incident, she loses some of her innocence.

America’s history will be scarred forever by the evils of slavery which once existed here. Slaves lived lives of pain and hardship. But some, like the slave and later abolitionist Frederick Douglass, rose up from the tribulations of slavery and led the way for progress and change in America. In his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass tells his inspiring yet harrowing story of his life as a slave in Maryland and his escape to freedom in New York and later Massachusetts, where he eventually became an abolitionist. Douglass masterfully uses ethos, pathos, and logos to craft his powerful narrative that exposes to his audience, the American people, the horrors, absurdity, and hypocrisy of slavery.

One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick

Slavery was an embarrassing time in America’s history. In 2016, slavery has become a distant memory. It’s easy for us to admit that slavery is wrong but, in Frederick Douglass’s time no one thought that it was. Frederick Douglass went on to write books and give speeches in hope that one day all slaves would be free. In the book called “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, he attempts to shine light on the American Slave system in the 1800’s.

Frederick Douglass was a gifted speaker. He wanted to convince a crowd of hundreds that were gathered together to celebrate Independence Day not only about the hypocrisy of slavery, but also to essentially “sting the conscience of America (Braswell).” When Douglass was asked to speak on Independence Day, there were still more than 3.5 million African Americans enslaved (Braswell). Throughout his life, Douglass advocated equal justice and rights for African Americans. That brings us to the first theme, which is inequality. In our past readings, this has been a prevalent theme. For example, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, we saw slavery with the peasants and the inequality within the aristocracy. In Benito Cereno, we were able to see slavery with African Americans. In this reading, however, we get to see first hand someone calling out the American people and voicing that slavery should be eliminated. In our past readings we have seen many forms of “heroes.” My question for the

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe”- Frederick Douglass

When a man grows up as an untaught slave in the southern eighteenth-century, he has no other ambitions than to be free. But for Frederick Douglass, freedom was merely step one. Douglass began his life on a plantation owed from the moment he arrived. He was not destined to stay put there. Born in (what he can come close to) 1818, he began life out as a man in chains but ended up a respected wordsmith, but still apologetic for his short comings. Douglass learned how to read, write, and give speeches; he influenced a nation for changes among writers today; and he had different approaches to the era he lived in, but knew he wanted change to exist among all. These things were needed to occur in order for the slavery and African-American society to be recognized as equals among all. His wit was not small nor was his leadership not seen as defiance. Each step of his journey, brought him to a different place where he faced a challenge that could not have been met any other way, but with strength and education where he was successful in obtaining. Douglass was not only a speaker, but was an author of his time. Many colleagues wrote of him and his life even after he passed away. In Douglass’ works he spoke of his ignorance and blunders, but continued to sow his good seed. In the book “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas an

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” – Frederick Douglass

The glimmering light in darkness, the key to the shackles of oppression, all of which integrate into the hope: Frederick Douglass. America was not free. Not free even after what was known as the war for independence, the war for freedom, the revolutionary war. As racial maltreatment ran rampant along with social injustice, the United States slowly grew to be a misnomer. Slavery, above all, cast its umbra upon productivity, and set a twisted precedent leading to the patriarchy. For some, this was seen as affliction, but for others, this was opportunity to mend America. The following chapters of its history identifies largely with social and moral liberation. The United States did not become understanding and compliant with societal equality in an instant, as it took strain, sweat, and blood to simply obtain a basic right: freedom. Through Frederick Douglass’s unique slave background, he developed a vision for the future, a vision which propelled Douglass on his quest that would earn him the title, “Father of the Civil Rights Movement” and depolarize equality.

The setting changes while Francie continues to mature into a woman. She becomes 16, and is beginning to lead a life of her own. The family leaves the grieving they had for Johnny behind. Not only does Francie start out with a clean slate, so does the rest of the Nolan family. After the two and ½ years of mourning for Johnny, Sergeant Mc Shane asks Katie to marry him. War rages through the country. While he and Katie make arrangements for the fall wedding and gifts of money and whatnot, Francie makes headway in her personal life.

In the mid-1800s, Frederick Douglass escaped enslavement in an incredible feat of tenacity, intellect, and courage. Upon escape, he became a champion of human rights and a leading figure in the abolitionist movement, despite the racial constraints of the time. Douglass exposed the atrocious injustices of the slave system and fought to exterminate them. Over the past 170 years, American policy and culture have made great leaps in creating a more just system. However, indelible remnants of the slavery era still remain in American race relations today. Remnants of slavery live on through dehumanizing language and imagery, the inability of many African-Americans to attain a quality education, and uneven treatment by law enforcement and justices.

Many ignorant people assume that the living conditions of African Americans during slavery and desegregation were not as harsh as they are made out to be. However, autobiographies of African Americans that were alive during that time prove otherwise. If people continue to believe that African Americans did not live a tough life during slavery and desegregation, America will be covering up its past and directly contributing to the further discrimination of the African American people. Texts such as Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of my Life display how difficult growing up as an African American was during this time by providing insight into the atrocities of slave labor and pimping.

Can you imagine living a life filled with hunger, abuse, and injustice with an almost impossible chance of escaping? In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass writes about his life and experiences as a slave in the 1800's. With this book, Douglass attempts to change his reader's beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by revealing the injustices and awful living conditions found in slavery.

There have been many cases of social injustice on a number of occasions in the expansive history of the United States. The oppressions of the early movements for women’s suffrage and the relocation and encampment of Native Americans are two of many occurrences. Around the middle of the 20th century, a movement for equality and civil liberties for African Americans among citizens began. In this essay, Notes of a Native son James Baldwin, a black man living in this time, recalls experiences from within the heart of said movement. Baldwin conveys a sense of immediacy throughout his passage by making his writing approachable and estimating an enormous amount of ethos.

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