The Frederick Douglass Roller Coaster

After reading chapters seven through nine, I realized I felt multiple different emotions. Those chapters were a complete roller coaster not only for me as a reader, but for Frederick Douglass himself. He lived through high points and low points, and as I wanted the good parts to continue, suddenly something rough occurred. 

Chapter seven begins with a negative note that was left off at the previous chapter: Douglass's mistress stopped teaching him how to read. That did made me feel bad for Douglass, since he lost that privilege. However, the narration makes a positive turn when he begins to learn on his own. He had enough devotion and dedication to initiate such a thing and that's why my hope and optimism was restored. He was very astute to have become "friends of all the little white boys whom... [he] converted into teachers" (Page 49). The way it worked was that he would bring them bread and in return they would "give [him] that more valuable bread of knowledge" (Page 49). 

Writhe: (verb) Make continual
twisting, squirming movements
or contortions of the body.

I was happy with how everything was going until I got to this very negative part: Douglass realizes how brutal and horrid slavery really was and how he wants to unlearn everything he already had. At the end of chapter seven he said, "As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing...It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but no ladder upon which to get out...I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity" (Page 51). In order for someone to envy slaves for "their stupidity", there must be something going on. For Frederick Douglass to finally understand how atrocious slavery was must have been such a big shock in his life. It's something that we can't truly understand because we have been raised at a different time period and with a certain perspective that has been cultivated in us since we were young. It's not that it's "normal" to us,  but it definitely isn't such a traumatizing news for us as it was for him. This discovery was incredibly nauseating and dreadful to Douglass, and it made me feel at a low curve. 

Then in chapter eight, Douglass talks about his grandmother - and certainly gives pathos a good use. That made me feel bad for him because he showed and convinced me that his grandmother, a caring woman, was born a slave and had to remain living in misery forever. He mentioned that "She was...a slave for life...in the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny" (Page 56). It's mournful to hear about someone with good intentions who is subdued to such a depressive life. 

Wharf: (noun) A level quayside area to which a ship
may be moored to load or unload.

For the rest of chapters eight and nine I felt like I was falling even more in the emotional roller coaster, but at the very end I finally reached an uplifting moment. After Douglass mentioned his grandmother and used pathos a lot to mention several dark things about slavery, he begins to depict his transition from the lightweight slavery life that he was living in Baltimore towards the heavyweight slavery life he had now been condemned to. He was sent to live with Thomas Auld, who was an "adopted slaveholder". According to Douglass, "he was cruel but cowardly" (Page 60) and he "gave [them] enough of neither coarse or fine food" (Page 59). Those things were hard on him since he had been living for seven years in Baltimore, where he was given decent food and his master wasn't as cruel as the new one. 

Pious: (adj.) Devoutly religious.

To finalize this long post, I have to mention the last part of my reading that felt uplifting to me. It was like I finally had the chance to breathe. At the end of chapter nine, Douglass is sent to Edward Covey's place for one year. This is what made me feel like the roller coaster began to lift up. He described him like this: "Added to the natural good qualities of Mr. Covey, he was a professor of religion - a pious soul - a member and a class-leader in the Methodist Church" (Page 63). I knew that his new master was a good man, and what really confirmed it, was at the end when Douglass said: "I was for sure getting enough to eat, which is not the smallest consideration to a hungry man" (Page 63). 

This was the wobbly emotional roller coaster that I experienced while reading chapters 7-9. 

New World, New Motivation

For the next two chapters of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, I found it very interesting how Douglass shows the way he has evolved as a person. When he was living in the South in Colonel Lloyd's plantation, he lived and witnessed the most tremendous events one can see. In chapters one through four, it's evidenced that he had to see terrible whippings and deaths, not to mention he himself lived in miserable conditions, "In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost naked..." (Douglass, p. 39). However, later on chapter 5, Douglass narrates how his early years of misery working as a slave under Colonel Lloyd's watch came to an end and a new phase in his life emerged. That's when he discovered a new world.

When I talk about the new world, what  I really mean is a place where there are no plantations, slaves are not publicly whipped or killed, and where slaves's jobs range from cooking to baby sitting. In other words, the North. Douglass was taken to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld and as he said, "...[he] left it with joy." (Douglass, p. 40). From that moment of knowing he was leaving his old plantation, his motivation began: "...the people in Baltimore were very cleanly...she was going to give me a pair of trousers...the thought of owning a pair of trousers was great indeed!" (Douglass, p. 40). 

When he got to Baltimore, to him, everything was amazing. He only saw one bad thing and it was the cruel lashings that the neighbor slaves (Mary and Henrietta) went through. Other than that, he loved his new home: "A city slave is almost a freeman...he is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation" (Douglass, p. 46). It was in Baltimore where the spark of his desire and motivation to learn how to be literate began. Mrs. Auld, his mistress, taught him the ABC's and very basic spelling lessons. Later, Mr. Auld prohibited her to keep teaching him, since "Learning would spoil the best n----r in the world" and "He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master" (Douglass, p. 45). But those words were exactly the main motivation for Douglass to learn more. His goal was set and nothing would bring him down: "Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which...I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn to read" (Douglass, p. 45). 

I'm just curious and interested to know in what sorts of trouble Douglass will get in order to achieve what he wants. 

Now to finish, I'll take a moment to add some vocabulary words that were new to me. 

Galling: (adj.) Annoying, humiliating 

 
  

Blight: (noun) An ugly, neglected, or rundown condition

Mangle: (verb) Severely mutilate. disfigure, or damage by cutting, tearing, or crushing.

Emaciated: (adj.) Abnormally thing or weak especially because of illness or lack of food.

Freedom is the Answer

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." This is precisely why school shouldn’t be mandatory. High school teachers themselves can assure that students, who are forced to go to school and have no interest, can’t learn anything of value. They won’t quit only because they don’t have the option. Schools are a serious place to learn. If students that are not interested in learning stay away, they won’t pollute the learning environment of interested students. Other benefits would include: report cards showing the real results of each and everyone’s learning, the schools’ public esteem would grow, and there wouldn’t be a cost to enforce people to study. In conclusion forced learners aren’t truly learners at all and are only tainting schools for everyone else.

Frederick Douglass Argues and Persuades

After reading this article, I learned the definitions and purposes of the Greek terms logos, pathos and ethos. With logos (argument by logic), ethos (argument by character), and pathos (argument by emotion), you can convince everyone you want. I never would've thought that persuasion had such a big study behind it, but it does and it most certainly works. At least it has been working while I read The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Many times we read or use logos, pathos and ethos without even noticing them and it was in Frederick Douglass's narrative that I was able to find some interesting examples. 

"His presence was painful; his eyes flashed confusion; and seldom was his sharp, shrill voice heard, without producing horror and trembling in their ranks." (Douglass, 36). Douglass's use of adjectives (painful, sharp, horror) emote the way Mr. Gore's presence affected people emotionally. That's why this is pathos.

Shrill: (adj.) (of a voice or sound)
High- pitched and piercing

When Douglass mentions parts of his life that have sentimental value to him or that directly affects his emotions, it is clear that he uses pathos. Douglass argues with emotion when he mentions that someone killed his wife's cousin. "The wife of Mr. Giles Hicks...murdered my wife's cousin, a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age...breaking her nose and breastbone with a stick." (Douglass, 37). He describes how inhumanely this girl was killed. To make it worse, it was someone that was part of his family. That has emotional value, and convinces us to believe him. The last example I came across with was: "...and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and blood and brains marked the water where he had stood." (Douglass, 36). This quote shows sympathy, which is exactly what pathos is all about. 

Quarrel: (noun) An angry
argument or disagreement.

The next form of rhetoric that I found was ethos. At the end of chapter three, Douglass narrates, "...It is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others." (Douglass, 34). This is a perfect example of ethos since each of the slaves fights over the other one about whose master is better. It is argument by character: employs each of the persuaders's reputation. The other ethos example I found, plays with the persuader's reputation and personality: "I speak advisedly when I say this, - that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community." (Douglass, 37). Douglass had to say that he was advisedly speaking, for he wouldn't have made that opinion himself, probably because we know he was a black man and a slave. 

Utter: (verb) Say
something aloud.

Finally, I come to logos. To me, logos is the hardest form of rhetoric to find. It is all about logic, but it passes unnoticed to me. Approaching the end of chapter three, I found this: "I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer, nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false." (Douglass, 33). He says that whenever someone asked him if his master was a nice person, well he wouldn't respond negatively - I mean he was a slave, he HAD to watch out for what he said - but he also wouldn't lie completely. To me, this is something very logical, very obvious. If he were to say bad things about his master, he would probably get killed or sold. This is why I consider that quote as logos.

To me, pathos is the easiest form of rhetoric to find and use. I consider myself a very emotional person, and after I thought about it, I noticed that pathos is what best works for me when arguing. To close this entry, I'd like to link this youtube video of Mufasa's death in The Lion King simply because it utilizes pathos just like in Frederick Douglass's narrative. 

Slavery, Privileges and Music

I'll begin this entry by pointing out some vocabulary words that were new to me.

Feeble: (adj.) lacking strength

Obdurate: (adj.) Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action.

Coarse: (adj.) Rough or loose in texture or grain.

Sloop: (noun) A small square-rigged sailing warship with two or three masts.

The first two chapters of Frederick Douglass's narrative pretty much introduce the context of the time in which he was living. We learn that it's around mid 1800's and that he was a slave, son of a white father and black mother. He described many traditions that occurred during the slavery times. For example, I didn't know that a slave mother was separated from his child before the baby had his first birthday. Or that children of slave women and white men had to follow their mother's condition, turning them into slaves. I just can't imagine how hard that must have been for everyone who had to go through that. It's almost unimaginable for me to place myself in that position. My mother and I are so close that I even feel lost whenever she leaves for two-week business trips. Sadly, Frederick Douglass just saw his mother a few times when he was just a kid and at night while she sneaked out from the plantation where she was working at.  

I found it very impressive that Douglass, who was a slave, could even be writing what he was writing. He said right at the beginning that white boys could read and write and that he shared that same privilege, unlike the other slaves who were just "stupid" due to their illiteracy.That sense of privilege is something I can relate to, especially here in Colombia. According to this article from El Tiempo, the high social stratum (5 & 6) in Bogota is just 4% of Bogota's total population. That just makes me privileged to be a part of that very reduced group of people, just like Frederick Douglass who was probably one of the very few or even the only slave who was capable of reading at that time. 

Another thing that impressed me was how music was so crucially important to slaves. When I'm asked to think of slaves, I never really relate the thought of slaves to music. I mean, yes they must have brought their African traditions and culture, but I basically think of them doing severe labor. However, Douglass describes how poignant music was to slaves in general especially to him. He even mentions how he teared up while writing about the songs they chanted. These songs were an allegation against slavery, as well as prayers to God so that he could have some mercy. It was through those songs that he realized how slavery was so repulsive and uncivil. I relate to that, to the fact of realizing something about our society through music. Some songs that really have influenced my way of thinking and realization are: "Society" by Pearl Jam, "Super Rich Kids" by Frank Ocean featuring Earl Sweatshirt, and "Where is the Love" by the Black Eyed Peas. I like the way music serves as a voice and as an escape, both for Frederick Douglass and for me.

Up to now, Frederick Douglass's narrative has been tender and compelling. His portrayal of slavery is very perceptible and clear. I'm enjoying it and I know it will get even better as I find out where his literacy skills will take him in life. 

Addiction Abide

An excerpt from the first and only screenplay I have ever written.

At Least Don't Be an Ignorant in the Web

I completely agree with what Wickman says in the article; blog is not the same as blog post. For two years now, I've had a tumblr blog and that's why I understand his point.  I really liked his analogy of using magazine and article to state the difference between blog and blog post because people who are not familiar with those terms or the topic in general will understand it better. I believe that the internet has become such a big part of our lives that it is our duty to understand concepts such as "blog" and "blog post" completely. If you don't, then I guess you're just an internet ignorant.