Thinking About Frederick Douglass?
Based upon your reading and understanding of The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, what should one take away from the text? Could this idea be applied within today's world? Why? Why not? Please defend your response using quotations and other rationale from the text as it collides with your thinking. Please complete this blog response by 2:30p.m. Friday.
posted by Greg T at Monday, March 30, 2015
22 Comments:
I think if one was to try to apply something from The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass into today's world, they would be severely stretching the purposes of the diary Douglass wrote.
The narrative is a vivid description of the daily life of a slave during the 19th century America, when abolitionism was just beginning to take seed. It does not fade away from the details, especially in regard to gore and violence; Douglass is objective in his analysis of his previous owners. He describes his owners tearing the clothes of their slaves and whipping them, as well as shooting them dead in a river when they refused to go to work. Douglass, throughout the diary, shows intense perseverance and a passion to achieve liberation and become an educated, learned man.
What can we take away from this and apply to our lives? That slavery is bad? It's a fairly well-drawn line that slavery is abhorrent in the modern day. It's not as if we can use Douglass' book to convince present-day slave owners to release their captive servants. We have, for the most part, achieved a fairly balanced racial equality, at least most of the developed nations of the world. So the injustice and inequality argument isn't exactly that strong. Could Douglass' passion to learn and escape slavery be a source of inspiration for us today? Maybe, although it might prove to be difficult to relate to a slave when most of us haven't come close to what he endured. It's one thing to read about someone's passion, and another to actually connect that with your own life.
Ultimately, it is likely up to the subjective opinion of the reader to find a connection to the text and apply it pragmatically to their own lives.
I believe that the most important thing that we can take away from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is, perseverance will always pay off.
In the Novel Frederick Douglass perseveres throughout his entire life for equal rights and treatment of African Americans. He doesn't achieve everything that he wanted to, but his determination he is able to make massive strides in his quest for equality.
Throughout the book we learn of the hardships that Frederick Douglass endured, but through all this pain and suffering he was able to stay determined to gain more rights for the African American community. I Think that the best thing we can take away from this book is the determination that Frederick Douglass possessed.
Something one can take away from The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass is, the strength that he presents. Throughout this narrative, he has to endure being a slave from a very young age, watching abuse and getting abused. It was extremely brutal during this time for slaves. His strength helped him get through it to later become a well known, educated man.
This could be applied today, to a certain extent. We go through hardships in life, but nothing like a slave during that time. Being strong becomes a natural habit that humans have to have because life can be difficult at times.
Based upon the the “The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, one should take away two main ideas. The first being of which is education. Education allows for a greater life, as seen in this narrative. Frederick being a slave was not allowed basic education which made him lesser than his owners and his white counterparts that were his age. “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” Douglass doesn’t understand why he doesn’t know his own age because he has never been educated in the matter. As the story progresses, with the aid of a housewife and his determination to learn to read, he eventually becomes educated and realizes that he must escape and he realizes the evil of slavery. This is a stark reminder to us today to not take education for granted, because it allows us to achieve more and become better people instead of just living life in a stagnant state. The second thing to take away from the narrative is the idea of having the will to accomplish something. Douglass has the will to become free and even through the harshest of conditions he succeeds, this serves as a reminder to always push on no matter how apparently difficult the situation is.
The things I take away from the text of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas is that hard work will get you to the place you have in mind. Frederick Douglas believed that all African Americans should be treated equally and with complete respect.
People bashed his ideas throughout his life but this only led him to be more determined to achieve. liberation for the slaves. He was able to change the society he lived in by making everyone enjoy life by giving them freedom from slavery.
He went through getting tortured and beat up day after day but never gave up on what he wanted. We can apply this to our lives when something challenging might come up.
The one major theme I took away from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is that ignorance was the root cause for the suppression of the slaves. That was how the slave owners controlled them; knowledge was the key to freedom.
This can be applied to today through keeping oneself educated, as ignorance is one with compliance.
In my opinion, what one should take away from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the idea of ones identity. In the text, Frederick Douglass has a strong upholding of himself as an individual. Throughout the text we see Douglass face many hardships due to him being a slave. Douglass had not only seen abuse but was abused himself. Something that particularly caught my attention was at the beginning of the text when Douglass was talking about his slave master being his father. For a young Frederick Douglass not knowing his mother and having his father own him as a slave had made me realize that Douglass was an individual. He didn't have many people to influence him other than himself. In conclusion, I believe that Douglass had showed a lot about identity throughout his text.
The most important thing to take away from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, is to stay positive. No matter what someone is going through, life will get better if you want it to get better. Frederick Douglas went through worse stuff than anyone could even imagine. He stayed positive and hopeful that he would someday become free and get out of slavery. It eventually happened, and I don't think he would have became free if he wasn't as positive or hopeful. In my opinion, the most important thing to take out after reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, is to stay positive.
Based on The Narrative of the Life and Times of Fredrick Douglas there are not necessarily comparisons you can make to the modern world. Instead I believe the narrative provides a catalyst that allows us to think deeper on how we view our past and how we should live now.
Fredrick Douglas lived a frankly brutal beginning in life with slavery and the horrors he witnessed. By reading this novel we look deep into how our lives we are living now compare to that of the past and it allows us to know the horrors and so we can never repeat them again because American history is forever tarnished because of slavery and we can't control that but what we can control is the American future.
I think since everyone is different, everyone takes away something different from The Narative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. As for me, I notice the fear that Douglass tries to cover up with the facts of freedom. Thats what I take away from this- fear is somethig we need to succeed.
Now, can what I take away from the text be appiled to todays world? Like I talked about in my speech- fear shoulldn't define us, but we can not live without it. So yes, this can be appiled today. We as students fear waking into the biggest final of the year, but we can't let fear stop us from getting that grade.
Sadly enough, Fredrick Douglass dosen't directly quote fear. But he sets a great example of fear, of how he feared that once he was free, that he would become a slave again. But he didn't let fear stop him. He started writing books and speeches, he talked to large crowds about peace. That fear was his motivation to succeed. If someone says far held Douglass back, they're plain wrong, and in fact, fear is probably defining them.
The Narrative Of the Life of Frederick Douglass is such an inspirational narrative that inspires me to pursue the things you believe in. I have always wanted to pursue a career in the math a and science. Sometimes I think that I wont be able to because of the level of difficulty, but Frederick inspires me to continue and to never give up, because he never gave up when he was abused. He always saw the good /light.
The most prominent ideas that can be depicted from the Narrative of the Life Of Fredrick Douglass, are the concepts of grit and endurance. Fredrick Douglass clearly demonstrates endurance physically and mentally. Life is tough. But Fredrick takes the definition of "tough" to a whole different level. The quote, "At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness," is a great example of how even during the toughest part of his slavery, he had grit and found little things to nurture his faith and endurance such as singing to drown out the sadness mentally. Douglass had so much grit throughout the whole process physically on one level as a slave, and mentally and socially on another level as an African American. He could have chose to give up an accept his standing in society as a slave the way it was. Instead his endurance and grit carried him to eventually escape to New York, get a job, get married, and continue to advocate Civil Rights for the rest of his life.
After reading the story "The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass", there are many key points that can be taken away. Obviously, Frederick Douglass went through a very hard time, and his life was far from easy. Yet, he was able to overcome these difficulties to not only improve his life, but to fight for the improvement of others lives. This shows to me the able that a single person has to effect political and cultural ideas based on their own experiences. He was only one person, but he shows how big an impact one person can have if they fight for something they truly have a stance on.
I believe that the narrative focuses on some of our strongest values and understandings of what is truly important. The really strong ideals and motivations that Douglas notes can show just how strong he is. I find that his persistence in noting that much of the pain we suffer is only temporary. Though Douglas has suffered more than most of us can imagine , he finds his way and power in these hard ships.
After reading "The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass" some things I think someone should take away from the reading are endless, but I think the most important one is that hard work will take you where you want to go. Frederick was not in an easy place to grow up but he had big dreams. Because he had the strength and perseverance to follow those dreams, he got where he wanted to go, he faced huge obstacles along the way. Both mental and physical struggles, but pushing through those made him who he was and pushed him into trying harder to succeed. We can apply this to our own lives because we learn from our mistakes, but I also believe that our mistakes drive us to succeed.
After reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the most important thing I took away from the text is that all people, no matter what race or walk of life they come from, feel very similarly about life. No one man has any true authority over another. This can be applied to life today. Everyone you talk to has something that they are going through. We are all subject to human emotion.
What I took away from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was that with dedication and persistence, anything is possible. Fredrick Douglass lived a very tough life that I nor any of my classmates could ever begin to understand. He seemed to be stuck a slave, with no freedom in sight. He overcame these incredible odds and escaped to New York to start a family and work on the civil rights movements.
After reading “The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass,” one should take away the courage and aspiration Frederick Douglass had to become an independ free man. His story to freedom and later success was his greatest accomplishment. Douglass knew he lived in a hard time in American History, but his motive to someday achieve success fueled him to not lose sight of the big picture. Even today, Douglas’s legacy is remembered as an inspiration to never give up on yourself.
I think the "The Narrative of The Life Of Fredrick Douglas" would like us to take away that perseverance pays off, and to never, ever, give up. The idea should be applied to motivate all the people in life who have given up, in order to improve the american way of life. Through out the book we see that fredrick douglas refused to give up on his dream of becoming free, then when free advocated for rights for the fellow brothers in the hood.
One thing I take away from The Narrative Of The Life of Fredrick Douglass is that if you work hard for something and if you are determined, anything is possible. Throughout his life he had to deal with the hardships of being a slave and he had to deal with the fact that he would never amount to anything in life. However, he showed great perserverance and was able to escape slavery, become educated and and do what he loved. This narrative really inspired me to go after the things I want. I realized that people like Douglass who grew up with very little opportunities were still able to make something of their lives. I have been givin so many opportunites to be succesful and after reading his narrative I realize I can become whatever I decide to be.
I would say that the strongest thing you can take away from the Narrative Of The Life of Frederick Douglass is that humans can persevere. In this short narrative Frederick always seems to be able to bounce back from anything that he is dealt, and in the long run it pays off for him. This idea is still used in this day in age. It truly is the best feature that humans have, Not the ability to get knocked down, but the ability to stand back up. "That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery" is a quote that showed even though people were enslaved they didn't give up hope.
After reading the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, I think one of the most important things to take away is that it's important to be yourself no matter the hand you've been dealt. Frederick was obviously living a really tough life, but throughout it all he remained himself and he appreciated the little things that he was given. This is very important even in today's world because, while we aren't enslaved as he was, it is very easy to become bogged down by the hard stuff and forget about the good things. Frederick definitely had hard times in his life where there wasn't much hope, just as we do today, but he learned to look to the future and what would become good later in life. He took life as it came and accepted the situation that he was in and then he worked to help other people once he became free, and that is another thing we can take away from his life. If we have gone through a particularly tough trial, I think we can be really helpful to someone who is going through the same thing, and that is exactly what Frederick did.
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