Frederick Douglass style of writing - Essay Example

? Frederick Douglass – style of writing Eric G. Williams, Sr. Research Paper English 2327 November 15, Dr. Romana Cortese In the month of February, in 1818, on the Holme Hill Farm in Talbot County, Maryland, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born to an unnamed white man and Harriet Bailey. His mother was a slave and very soon Frederick was separated from his mother to live with other children who were not quite old to work in the fields. He suffered just as any other slave would in that period of time, from hunger, no bed to sleep on, barefoot, nothing to wear but a long shirt, no hint of affection and even separated from his three siblings. At the age of seven he moved to a couples place in Baltimore and he was more than happy for that. It was here in Baltimore that he learnt the English alphabets (Merriman). Douglass grew up to be an author, abolitionist and a lecturer and wrote three autobiographies during his lifetime; A Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). As he was a brilliant speaker he was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to deliver lectures at various places. He became famous and was recognized as one of the greatest black speakers in America. He was the foremost to declare himself a fugitive publicly and published many newspapers, one of them being an anti slavery newspaper called ‘The North Star’ and most of his causes were in the name of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", which was incorporated in the United States Declaration of Independence. He also served as an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln at the time of the Civil War and recommended many amendments to the American constitution, especially for the blacks. Douglass was a powerful administrator of human rights during that time in America and is still praised for his contributions against racial injustice (Merriman; Thomas). In this article we explore the amusing and powerful writing style of Frederick Douglass. Douglas was well spoken and thus his writing reflected it. Doubts had been raised about the credibility of his writing, whether he had written them or others had done it for him, but he proved that he was clean by introducing writings of well known abolitionists and personal friends, who describe his work. Two of them, William Llyod Garrison and Wendell Phillips were well known friends of his. Both of them were white, and they both of them mention the author and his credentials in the preface of the book, thereby shutting all the questions raised. Douglass also included dates in his writing and thus this proved the credibility of his writing (McNamara) Douglass had a definitive tone in his writing. It increased the rhetorical strategy and the ethos presented by him within his writing. His writing had a feel as if it was written for a definite section of the society, the upper middle class. At a time when books were not very cheap and was more of a luxury, Douglass had to establish himself on the same platform as the readers, instill in them a sense of all the wrong things happening in the society then, stir their emotions and thus influence their feelings so as to get a response in the way he wanted, that is a need for a change. He had a great choice of words sentence structures which set the tone for the extract. He awakens the reader to a new realization (Lampe, 81,101-102). Douglass’s writings have a pattern of objective and subjective styles of writing. He narrates in his autobiography, what he is and what he believed in. Objective style of writing uses facts to establish points, instead of opinions. Instances of his writing lacking emotions have also been seen. In his, at a particular point he describes Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger (Moritz, 23). He describes such a scene, but then no negative emotions are portrayed by him towards Mr. Covey. Scenes following it have descriptions of brutal anger and torment, which describes him being beaten and whipped, but with no display of emotion in the writing. This style is objective as a subjective writer would have included his own opinions in the middle of such a description (Moritz, 23). On the other hand subjective writing reflects the writer’s emotions, which Douglass has also used in his work. In the parts where he describes his views about freedom and slavery he uses it more. He wrote, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery (Douglass, 55) and in this way explains how inappropriate and terrible it was to live with Covey. Douglass as a slave had to experience bitterness while at Covey’s. In another place he describes his state of mind as, I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished. (Douglass, 55) He meant to say how disturbed he was and how hard his work was becoming with Covey never quite expressing satisfaction with his work. Subjective writing gives the readers an opportunity to infer about the tone and the emotion attached with a statement. Slave narratives are usually meant to provide a analytical view about the system and very little of the personal life of the author. Douglass’s narrative strangely fulfils those criteria as well. According to literary critic, James Olney, such narratives usually dive into the depths of literacy, identity and freedom, whereas Douglass’s narrative goes beyond all these and describes everything even more convincingly and in detail. The blacks of America could relate to the occurrences and descriptions given in his work, of his own experiences, and aptly described as more metaphorical than rhetorical (Moritz, 22). The themes incorporated by Douglass in his work are exemplary and very relevant to his work. When the author reveals how he obtained literacy, he is able to create his own identity and he gains his own freedom in the writing. Douglass’s first narrative turned the whole writing style of a slave narrative and gave an idea how words could be used as weapons to put forward the problems faced by the slaves and to demand the right to education as a basic right. Perhaps, the ability to communicate with the whites was of major importance in his transformation from a slave to an abolitionist. This shows that Douglass has tried to shed his African self in order make himself socially acceptable by the white people and thus presents his writing in an objective manner keeping in mind his white audience. His work portrays, very often, definitions in terms of the white people and prevents or avoids any connection to his African background (Moritz, 23; Blight 85, 115, 124). The Narrative follows a structure typical to slave narratives, involving stages of development such as discussion, itemization and lastly, dramatization. In his work from 1845 a wonderful style of narration is seen, where, instead of using the language dialect of the slaves, he uses complex English language to better capture the white audience. Soliloquies in his narration also prove the complexity of the language he uses and the in depth knowledge of the language by this once a slave. In one particular famous soliloquy Douglass describes and feels sad for the freedom which he cannot obtain, but the ships in the Chesapeake Bay have. You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wings! Alas! Betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on, O, that I could also go! (Moritz, 22). The above soliloquy brilliantly displays the author’s rhetorical abilities and his powerful and clever use of the language. Critics described his mastery of the English language owing to the acceptance and popularity he would receive in doing so, and that is why his writing remained unmatched in popularity as compared to other slave writers for a long time (Moritz, 24). The readers of his work are mostly made to imagine the presence of an eye witness, and this symbolizes the events as happening before a court of law. The following part from the Narrative represents this type of speech. He came to the spot, and, after looking at me awhile, asked me what was the matter. I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had the strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up. I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but, stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell (Douglass, 76) So here, we see that, Douglass, instead of presenting his real speech, presents it in a manner as if a second speaker is present, and this can be termed as ‘witness-narrator’ and leads to a dramatization of the events (Moritz, 25). The style is in a way so as to intend and establish both the ‘I’ for the author and as well as the ‘I’ for the race to which he belonged, thereby automatically arousing the audience in a sympathetic manner for the whole race and not just only the author. As a proof of his in depth knowledge of the English literature, Douglass uses many quotations from well known literary sources. Most black writers at that time were apologetic about their style of writing and literature, but Douglass surpasses all such theories and quoted even form Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Quotes from the Bible, the white people’s most religious book, have also been incorporated very intelligently, by which the author gains acceptance (Moritz, 25). The presence of humor is not alien in his writings. It might seem inappropriate to write with humor in a slave narrative, but Douglass establishes his difference from the other writers here. Most slave writers used irony to attack the system. An example of Douglass’s satire was present in the Appendix to his Narrative, where he portrays the religious behavior of the southerners as fake through a mimic of a hymn called the ‘Heavenly Union’ (Moritz, pp 26). They’ll raise tobacco, corn and rye,/ And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie, / And lay up treasures in the sky, / By making switch and cowskin fly, / In hope of heavenly union ( Douglass, pp 69) This parody clearly reflects the author’s superior skills in representation and the ability to de-stress the readers from the traumatic read (Moritz, pp 26). In conclusion, we can say that the techniques applied by Douglass are intelligently chosen and just with the genre of his work. Not only do the theme, structure and style represent a proper slave narrative style, but also it is the most representative of that kind of writing. His work justifies the demand for civil and human rights for the slaves and helps them as a much needed orator to punch in the facts in to the readers mind. His writings arouse sympathy and compassion in the readers. He represents both sides of the story, and by incorporating portions and hints of white culture in his writings. Lastly, the use of parodies, quotes and irony makes his work not only a great book, but a historical masterpiece and a literary masterpiece. References Blight, David W., “Frederick Douglass' Civil War: keeping faith in jubilee”, Louisiana: LSU Press, 1991. Douglass, Frederick, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, Boston: Published at the Anti-slavery office,(1845), retrieved on November 4, 2011 from: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf Douglass, Frederick, “The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglas (an African American Heritage Book)”, Radford: Wilder Publications, 2008 Douglass, Frederick, “The life and times of Frederick Douglass: his early life as a slave, his escape from bondage, and his complete history”, New York: Courier Dover Publications, 2003. Lampe, Gregory P. “Frederick Douglass: freedom's voice, 1818-1845”, East Lancing: MSU Press, 1998 McNamara ,Robert , “Frederick Douglass: Life of the Former Slave and Abolitionist Leader”, (n.d.) retrieved on November 4, 2011 from: http://history1800s.about.com/od/americanoriginals/p/freddouglassbio.htm Merriman, C D, ‘Frederick Douglass’, The literature network, (2008), Retrieved on November 4, 2011 from: http://www.online-literature.com/frederick_douglass/, Oehl, Moritz, “The Development of the Self-Image in Black Autobiographical Writing”, GRIN Verlag, 2007. Thomas, Sandra. ‘A biography of the life of Frederick Douglass’, Retrieved on November 4, 2011 from: http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/home.html (n.d) Read More