American Literature

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass retells the story of how Douglass became a slave and how he managed to find a way to gain part of himself and his freedom. Douglass narrated pointed out important things in relation to the life of a slave. The foremost thing that Douglass reiterated in this work is how the slaves are being maintained as slaves. This is through maintaining their ignorance on their situation and the nature of their slavery. Thus, Douglass showed in his work how learning and education impact greatly the capacity of a human being to accept being human and to learn, grow, improve and develop himself and use his full human capabilities.

Slaveholders maintain their slaves ignorance by preventing them to read and write. They do not experience being educated, thus, everything that they know of is only oral knowledge. Their knowledge is only about the plantation, how to work in it and how to develop and improve the plants that they tend to. It shows discrimination and unjust treatment to slaves as they are still humans that have the right to learn and be educated properly.

Education opens the eyes of an individual to his situation. Without knowledge given to them, the slaves do not understand the situation they are in. They do not know their rights and they do not understand when their rights as humans are being trampled upon. This is how the slaveholders take advantage of using these people. They knowingly prevent them to be human beings and individuals. They live their lives knowing only one thing, that is being a slave to the community. They do not even know their birthdates, and their familial ties are cut very early in their lives. This indicates that family ties are also important in establishing the individuality of a person. Douglass was different from other slaves. He craved for information and knowledge, particularly about himself in his early years. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even in my childhood, he stated (Douglass, p.13). Even in his early years, he knew that he was being deprived of the information that will make his individuality and will establish his human side.

Slaves were treated as less than humans, and because of the way how slaveholders cut their personal relationships and key to knowledge, they remain as ignorant with their mind solely focused on their survival from the cruelty of their masters. But Douglass showed how some slaves have an innate passion for knowledge and is sensitive about his surroundings. If some turns a blind eye to these inequalities for fear of their lives, some, like Douglass, placed a step ahead and pushed for his right to knowledge, and eventually freedom.

But Douglass also saw his gift of curiosity as a curse because it has given (him) a view of (his) wretched condition, without remedy (Douglass, p.47). He described knowledge as something that causes people unhappiness because it made him realize that the situation he is in has no solution, and education and knowledge will not liberate him as he previously believed to be so. This indicates then that education and knowledge is important in the development of the human mind but does not necessarily mean it is the way to freedom. It should be used, though, to find a way to freedom and this has been the later Douglass found out.

Maintaining the ignorance of the slaves is a more cruel way to handle the slaves. Slaveholders took away their personalities and shaped them according to who they wanted them to be, meek followers without any minds of their own to question their situation. Douglass work also clearly signifies the importance of knowing how to read and write. It carries within the person a way to understanding himself and learning his own potentials and capabilities to live on his own and not just as a slave that follows everything that his master tells him to.

Douglass work does not only teach its readers the cruelty, injustice and inequality happening during Douglass time. It does not only open the eyes of the readers in learning the truth about discrimination and inequality. It also teaches its readers the importance of learning and education and the value of knowing and believing in individuality. Because it presented tales of different slaves, the narration shows slavery through different eyes and how Douglass interpreted it. Douglass does not signify that education is the key to freedom from slavery but it makes one realize the situation where the slave is in. In the end, it is the slaves decision whether he will do something or not with regards to his situation. And this defines the difference between those that remain as slaves and those that aim to be free men.

There are a lot of points and underlying themes within Douglass work but what is most striking for me is the way how he interprets the role of education in establishing the identity and individuality of a human being. He presented this in a way that is not condescending upon those that do not recognize the value of learning and knowledge. Some just fears knowledge and learning because it would mean being taken out of their known comfort zone, which is their situation as slaves. They might experience cruelty and injustice but at least following their masters would mean they are surviving their everyday life. This is the life that other slaves like Douglass did not want to live forever, a life wherein someone is in control of ones life when you should be in charge of your own life, your own destiny. The narration leaves its readers a valuable lesson, make a decision in life not allow another human being to make decisions on where you are going to be or who youre going to be.