Alsamdani 1

Yahya Alsamdani

ENGL 2221

Deborah Nestor

6th April 7, 2017

THE NARATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1845)

Question 2

The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is written based on social aspects of life

that has in the past and the present continued to affect our society in which we live in. Frederick

Douglass in his narrative of life book, he depicts several social themes that he had once been

affected by and how the aspects nurtured him to become the person he later became to be.

Frederick Douglass has depicted a lot of social and political candidly that pressurized him to

come up with the narrative (Douglass, Frederick, 123).

To start with, Frederick Douglass gives his readers about his birth, upbringing and the

kind of parentage he was nurtured with. Frederick was born in a society where slavery was the

order of the day and applied in social, political and economic perspectives of the society. The

environment he was surrounded with could not allow human beings to emulsify themselves from

the social vices. Frederick justifies the slavery and being one of the victims by noting that he

was once denied by her teacher Mrs. Auld from continuing with his education because he was a

black. This shows the racist effects the people of African origin in America and the whole world

continue to go through even today.

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Secondly, the reason why Frederick writes the narrative is because he sees this as the only

way of freedom and frees himself from slavery and racist vices. For example Frederick forges

passes for himself and his friends with an ultimatum of escaping and this serves as a consolation

to him (Douglass, Frederick 125).

The narrative is important because it candidly brings to limelight the kind of social

problems people in different societal setups go through because of different cultural ideologies

and how these acts nurture them when they grow up.
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References

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Random
House Digital, Inc., 2000.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the life of an American slave. New Brunswick:

Transaction Publishers, 1998.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of an American Slave. Transaction Publishers, 2009.