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Mohammad Itani
ENGL 224
May 4, 2016
Final Paper

Literal Analysis of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was an African-American Abolitionist, orator, social reformer, and writer.
He was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818 where he served as a slave for multiple
people. In the city of Baltimore, however, Douglass was able to enjoy his freedom more than
slaves of the south did, he learned how to read and write, and was able to make contact with
educated people. Upon his escape from slavery at about the age of twenty, Frederick decided to
settle with his wife, a free black woman from Baltimore, Anna Murray, and change his last name
from Bailey to Douglass. Through his anti-slavery movement, in 1845, Douglass wrote his
autobiography the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Douglass titled his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.
Written by Himself. The title seems to be straightforward enough for the reader, it states that
Frederick Douglass was a slave, and that the book is going to be a story of his life, written by
himself. However, when closely analyzing the title, we notice a couple of things that are worth
noticing. First, Douglass calls himself an American slave, as to remind his audience that slavery
did not exist in some faraway land, but it happened in America, the supposed land of the free.
The second thing worth noticing, is the phrase, Written by Himself. This statement, as basic as
it seems, conveys a strong message to the audience. Here Douglass was proving that black
people were of equal to their white counterparts. Most Americans during that period of time,
when the book was published, had a hard time believing that a black person could learn to read,
let alone write a book. Some readers were even so skeptical about the authenticity of this book,
that they insisted that he had gotten help from someone to write the book.
In the narrative, Douglass acts as both the narrator and the main character, he progresses from an
uneducated, oppressed slave to a worldly and articulate political commentator. More often, he
dramatizes the difference between his older, more experienced self and his younger self through

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reference to his ignorance and naivet. One instance where this is apparent is when he first
arrives to Baltimore, and is amazed and surprised by almost every aspect of it.
As the narrator of the book, Douglass presents himself as a well reasoned, rational figure. Since
most events that he is narrating took place when he was a teenager, Douglass, the narrator, now
has a different perspective, and is capable of seeing the issue or situation in a different unbiased
manner, even slavery. Also, since Douglass wants the reader to believe his words, and convince
us with the truth, he opted to keep his tone dry, with limited exaggeration, and limited admission
of anger Nevertheless, he is angry and he wants his readers to feel angry as well, even though he
tries to keep his composure in check most of the time, yet he really let his emotions pour out at
times. An example of that is apparent in the following expert from Chapter X of the narrative.
I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your
gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! betwixt me and you, the turbid
waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly!
O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute!... (P.1211)
As for Douglass the protagonist, he seems to be have a strong character at times, and at other
times he is displaying a sideline presence. Even when presenting his younger self, sometimes the
character is presented as an interesting case, and sometimes as a typical representation of a slave.
At the beginning of the narrative, Douglasss character seems to be very weak and isnt really
contributing to the flow of events, however, later on as the narrative progresses, it becomes
stronger and more affirmative. This emergence of the strong character is the result of a series of
events that formed and reformed him. Three main events however are to worthy of mentioning.
The first being Captain Anthonys whipping of Aunt Hester; at this point, young Douglass is
introduced to the physical and psychic pain of slavery. The second scene is when Hugh Aulds
insists that Douglass should not be taught to read; here, Douglass becomes more committed to
learning and literacy just because he was denied from it after he started. The third and major
scene, is where Douglass fights with Covey; at this point, Douglass seems to have established a
sense of self and justice.
This paper deals with the analysis of the first part of the book, as in up to the beginning of the
tenth chapter. In those first nine chapters, the story moves rather slower than the rest of the book,
and talks more about his life as a slave and slavery itself. Through those chapters, however,
Douglass was able to deliver multiple messages to the readers without directly stating them.

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Starting from the beginning of the book, he starts by defining how a slave is made. He explains
how his master denied him from knowing his birth date, or even his birth year, and that he had
overheard it one time, and thats why we have it as 1818, then he moves on to explain how his
master also separated him from his mother soon after birth as to ensure that he did not develop
familial feelings that would make him weak later on. In chapter I of the book, he states the
following,
Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender
and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions
I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger. (P.1183)

and similarly in chapter V,

The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes were all suspended in my case.
I found no severe trial in my departure. My home was charmless; it was not home
to me; on parting from it, I could not feel that I was leaving any thing which I could
have enjoyed by staying. My mother was dead, my grandmother lived far off, so that
I seldom saw her. I had two sisters and one brother, that lived in the same house
with me; but the early separation of us from our mother had well nigh blotted the
fact of our relationship from our memories. (P.1194)
Douglass in these passages demonstrates how a slave is made at the very early stages of life.
When the slaveholders remove a child from his immediate family, the childs support network is
shattered, and the sense of personal history is lost. So what hes really saying or depicting in this
passage is the unnaturalness of slavery, how slave owners resort to distort social bonds and
natural processes of life, in order to turn men into slaves. With his readers in mind, and knowing
that nineteenth-century readers greatly value family structure, almost always viewing family as a
haven of virtue, he knew that the destruction of family structure would reflect back to the reader,
and it would appear to them as a signal of a larger moral illness of the culture. He was able to
convey social injustice of his time, through the breakdown of a family structure. In addition, to
appeal more to the reader, he used descriptive adjectives like soothing and tender to recreate
an image of his childhood that he would have known if his mother had been present. This
imaginative recreation contrasts normal stages of childhood development with his experience of
development as a child.

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Douglass then moves on to emphasize how ignorance was used as a tool of slavery, and how
knowledge was and is indeed the path to freedom. This is apparent in the following two passages
from chapter VI.
Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced
to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell
words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out
what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling
her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to
read. To use his own words, further, he said, If you give a nigger an inch, he will
take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told
to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now, said he, if you teach
that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It
would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and
of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal
of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy. (P.1196)
From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just
what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was
saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by
the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my
master. (P.1197)
In these passages, Hugh Auld orders his wife, Sophia, to stop giving Douglass reading lessons as
he feels that education forever ruins a slave for slavery, or as he said, it would forever unfit him
to be a slave. This moment represents a minor climax in the first half of the narrative; it was
here, upon overhearing these words, when Douglass realizes that white people hold black people
through a series of strategies, in specific, depriving blacks of education and a social network.
This admission from Hugh was valuable to Douglass for two reasons; first, it confirmed his
thoughts about slavery being unnatural or a justified form of society, but rather a socially
constructed power strategy supported by dehumanization. Second, he realizes that to become
educated means to become free, or at least for him, it provided a path to freedom. Douglass in
these two passages also subliminally shows the male supremacy and authority of the nineteenthcentury, he presents masculine knowledge as the most superior knowledge, far greater than that
of females.

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Lastly, Douglass tries to help the reader understand slaves. He recalls back to when he was
young, when he used to hear slaves sing on their way to the Great House Farm. Even himself did
not understand the true meaning of those songs, until he broke out of slavery. In chapter II, he
says,
I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently
incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as
those without might see and hear Every tone was a testimony against slavery,
and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes
always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness To those songs I
trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I
can never get rid of that conception. (P.1188)
The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them,
only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I
have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. (P.1188)
He uses his own conclusions and analysis over his previous years to correct misconceptions that
white readers might have. Many Northerners mistakenly believe that the singing of slaves is a
sign of their happiness, however, on an almost subconscious emotional level, the songs are
evidence of the slaves deep unhappiness. There is major difference between the literal and deep
meaning of the songs. The songs are actually difficult for outsiders to understand as they appear
incoherent, however the slaves themselves understood the literal meaning of the words they were
singing, yet, the true deep meaning of the songs does not become clear until he becomes an
outsider to the group. He implies that true meanings only become clear with distance and after
analysis of these past experiences. Douglass experienced life under slavery, so he developed the
necessary tools to understand what it means to be under those circumstances, as such, when he
broke free, he was able to use that experience in his favor to analyze and interpret those past
experiences. What he means is that he had to abandon his slave-self in order to become someone
capable of interpreting the experiences objectively. He implicitly states that culture remains
invisible to those who are raised within it, and live through it.
In conclusion to this paper, the first half of the narrative, as stated earlier, merely deals with the
life of a slave, not very specific to his as these events can be generalized to anyone. Yet, through
these events and his straightforward tone, Douglass is able to deliver his thoughts and ideas
clearly to the reader, while also sustaining a level of subconscious thinking.