I would like to try and touch on an
interpretive problem that was brought up in class that may cause some
controversy. In class we talked about how in the “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas”,
Fredrick portrays a lot of physical violence against slave women and leaves out
any real detail when there is a man being beaten. On pg. 51 he vividly
describes his aunt being whipped until he entire back was gashed and bloody. He
says as well that “it the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I
was doomed to be a witness and a participant.” (pg. 51). And he does tell us
about how he witnesses many more but fails to tell us in detail of his moments
of weakness (except for once briefly). Why is Douglas hiding this from the
reader? It is not until the tides turn on the “slave breaker” Mr. Covey that he
goes into detail about his experience.
We
also see this this same literally problem when we read Harriet Jacobs. She
failed to show any violence against women in her story. This brought up the
question for me that maybe both Fredrick, and Harriet is trying to keep their
genders dignity. I believe this because they both are hiding one genders
hardship from the reader and almost refusing to show the other side. Is this an
attempt to try and give strength to one gender over the other?
In the “Narrative
of the Life of Fredrick Douglas” I believe that he might be trying to play
himself up for this big finale where he kicks the shit out of the “slave
breaker” so it may or may not be an attempt to set the reader up for this. That
way he is portrayed as more of a hero to all of the slaves, especially all of
these women that have been beaten so badly.
I also wanted to
play around with the quote, “I now resolved that, however long I might remain a
slave in form, the day has passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.”
(pg. 113). This quote took place after he had beaten up Mr. Covey and I believe
that this is completely linked to literacy and Fredrick’s ability to read. Earlier
in the book Mrs. Auld began teaching Fredrick the A, B, Cs until Mr. Auld found
out and said: “if you teach that nigger how to read there would be no keeping
him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” (pg.78). So this physical
interaction with Mr. Covey was sparked by Fredrick’s knowledge of literacy and
how it is the only thing that gave the white man the power to enslave the Blackman.
And because Fredrick understands that he is able to overcome his fears and
stand up for his freedom.
While it is possible that Douglass avoided mentioning any men receiving a beating to protect the dignity of manhood, I find that such a reading ignores who Douglass’s intended audience. Douglass wrote his autobiography so that what he was saying in speeches at abolitionist gatherings could be more widely spread, especially to northern white people who might become abolitionist. As such, Douglass did not want to repeatedly shock his audience with reports of violence that were almost beyond belief, as his audience might be incredulous or decide that the descriptions of violence were for shock value and not necessarily based in reality. Many times the people listening to his speeches did not believe him until he showed them the scars on his back. Keeping such possibilities in mind, Douglass was very careful about his depictions of violence and when they occurred.
ReplyDeleteDouglass describes the beating of his aunt for very specific reasons. “It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery” that he would be forced to enter and relinquish his personhood (Douglass 16). Also, as such an important moment in his life, he could describe it to the audience just this once so that they have an idea of the horrors of slavery without being turned away from too much disgust since this description of violence was being described for further purpose than just a description of violence.
His reasons for describing the one other vividly violent episode are very similar. Just as the beating of his aunt marked the start of being a slave, the beating of Mr. Covey would mark his end as a slave, or, as Douglass put it, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (50). The chiasm of that statement as well as the parallels at both his beginning as a slave and his new beginning as a man were used to be very striking literary devices, not only justifying the description of another violent scene marking the beginning of manhood, but calling for such a description so that the parallel might be complete.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick, John W. Blassingame, John R. McKivigan, Peter P. Hinks, and Gerald Fulkerson. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New Haven: Yale UP, 2001. Print.