That Frederick is indeed emotionally unavailable is highlighted at every turn. He doesn't do "little things" for Anna, nor whisper sweet words to Ottilie. In his speeches, he thanks neither woman for the help they have given him. "Who helped more than me?" Anna thinks as she hears her husband's first speech. "How come Freddy didn't mention me?" Later Ottilie, listening to Douglass speak years later, reflects, "I'd heard Douglass give this speech numerous times and each time I felt outrage. He'd never thanked me. Never mentioned me." Anna and Ottilie eventually make a wary kind of peace as each comes to realize that Frederick cannot give her the love she wants. In their final meeting, Anna asks Ottilie if Frederick loves her, and Ottilie has to admit she doesn't know. Laughing bitterly, Anna admits that...
"I thought he choose you over me," she said. "I thought he must love you, but now I see Freddy never really learned to love." Thus, the domestic tragedy comes to an end. Anna and Ottilie have both spend their lives longing for that which will never be. It is no surprise to the reader that when Anna dies, Frederick forsakes Ottilie and marries a much younger white woman.
"To degrade and stamp out the liberties of a race" signified the "studied purpose" of linking social and civil equality. Douglass concluded that if the Civil Rights Law attempted to promote social equality, so did "the laws and customs of every civilized country in the world," including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, and the Apostles' Creed. He warned
Although fictional, Precious Jones, speaks to the reader through her story with powerful words. She is living in a different kind of slavery, although slavery itself had been abolished ore than a century ago. She is a slave to the lack of humanity of her own parents and the indifference of those who are supposed to teach and offer her guidance in school. As a child, she has no choice,
Stressing the shackles that slavery could latch to a man's mind, Douglass was given insight into the inherent transgression behind the bondage. And his ability to adopt such a perspective, while easy to underestimate from the distance of over a century, is quite remarkable given the overwhelming social constructions designed to deter that sort of thinking amongst his demographic. One of the more effective messages that he conveyed both
Douglass is significant to American history because of his efforts with President Lincoln. Douglass was not simply looking out for his own freedom; he was concerned for the freedom of every slave in America and was determined to do all that he could to help these men experience freedom. Even if this meant talking to the President of the United States. Paul Kendrick notes that Douglass' first meeting with Lincoln
Douglass understands the importance of name which represent an assertion of identity, and identity is freedom: "I subscribe myself" -- I write my self down in letters, I underwrite my identity and my very being, as indeed I have done in and all through the foregoing narrative that has brought me to this place, this moment, this state of being." (Douglas 75 in Davis, Gates 157). This is why
Frederick Douglass: An Exceptional Escape from Slavery, an Exceptional Author, Citizen and Man How did Frederick Douglass' personal experiences illustrate 19th century American race relations? Was Douglass' life typical or exceptional? What was his legacy for future generations of Americans? Frederick Douglass often presented his life as typical. The narrative structure he applied to his own literary efforts as well as his efforts as a speaker and as a lecturer suggested that his
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