Randy Orellana

Carroll, Kelly, Zamudio

October 15th, 2018

Douglass One Pager: The Last One

Douglass’s theme is about justice being something worth fighting for. He does this by
giving examples of how you have to stand up for yourself and by exaggerating stories so that he
inspires people to seek justice for themselves.
His example of standing up for yourself is when he stands up and fights against Mr.
Covey. After being worked so hard, Douglass reaches a breaking point and collapses on the
ground. Mr. Covey sees this and reacts violently out of anger and proceeds to take hold of
Frederick to discipline him. The text then describes Douglass fighting back and showing
resistance “I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by
the throat; and as I did so, I rose” (Douglass 53). This is a blatant display of standing up for
oneself as Douglass does not let his oppressor get away with beating him. Instead Douglass
stands up and seizes him by the throat and intends to fight back and take justice into his own
hands. A slave to fight back to his master was a very serious offense and for him to stand up and
fight Mr. Covey was a very bold and courageous move. What this shows about justice is that
sometimes standing up and fighting for yourself is necessary to find justice.
Another way Douglass shows that justice is worth fighting for is how he exaggerates
certain things that happen in order to inspire people to fight for justice the same way he did. At
the time he wrote this autobiography, slavery was still legal in the United States and many of
Frederick’s family and friends were still slaves in the South. Douglass hoped that by writing this,
he would inspire many slaves to stand up and break the oppressive chains of slavery and become
free the way he did. An example would be when he writes about the fight, he states “We were at
it for nearly two hours.....he had drawn no blood from me, but I had from him” (Douglass 54).
This narrative gives a positive and hopeful message to a slave reading it while still bound to
slavery. For a free person it would seem very unlikely for a slave to be at it with a master for 2
whole hours and for them to be left unscathed during the whole fracas. But to a slave this brings
a message of hope, of inspiration to fight back slavery. If one slave manages to successfully fight
off their master, it proves that all slaves cannot stay subject to oppression for ever. It shows that
justice will come if they fight back.
In conclusion Douglass’s theme of justice is that it is worth fighting for and he
masterfully shows it by talking about instances where he has fought for himself and by
exaggerating to inspire those who are oppressed. This can connect to even today where people
like Malala Yousafzai fight back oppressors of women’s education and in turn inspire many
others to do the same.