Rousseau’s Confessions and Frederick Douglass The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave are both autobiographies that give us an inside look to personal thoughts and emotions they felt at different times of their life. Having written one hundred years apart certainly helps us understand and address the ways in which each writes about themselves and their life. Rousseau and Douglass lived completely different lives that heavily influenced their unique writing style and shaped the way their autobiographies were written.
Rousseau’s Confessions is recognized as the first autobiography written in the era of the Enlightenment. Rousseau begins his story with a very egotistical introduction “I feel my heart and I know men. I am not mad like any that I have seen; I venture to believe that I was not made like any that exist” (Rousseau 387). He continues this type of exaggeration when he talks about his birth, “I cost my mother her life, and my birth was the first of my misfortunes” (Rousseau 388). Not only does he come across quickly as conceited talking about how his story is special and unlike any other, but he writes it in a sense where he almost expects the reader to feel sympathy for him. It appears as though he feels sorry for being born, because after his mother died it was just the …show more content…
Even though they were of the same genre both stories are completely different; Rousseau reflecting on his life as a collection of despairs and ego-filled confessions that he claims are worth reading and talking about. Frederick Douglass takes us through his life as a slave filled with violent and disturbing hardships that came from slavery. Despite the challenges he faced Douglass found that education was the only way to truly escape slavery, and praises the fact that we should rethink and revaluate equality in the education
Rousseau’s Confessions is recognized as the first autobiography written in the era of the Enlightenment. Rousseau begins his story with a very egotistical introduction “I feel my heart and I know men. I am not mad like any that I have seen; I venture to believe that I was not made like any that exist” (Rousseau 387). He continues this type of exaggeration when he talks about his birth, “I cost my mother her life, and my birth was the first of my misfortunes” (Rousseau 388). Not only does he come across quickly as conceited talking about how his story is special and unlike any other, but he writes it in a sense where he almost expects the reader to feel sympathy for him. It appears as though he feels sorry for being born, because after his mother died it was just the …show more content…
Even though they were of the same genre both stories are completely different; Rousseau reflecting on his life as a collection of despairs and ego-filled confessions that he claims are worth reading and talking about. Frederick Douglass takes us through his life as a slave filled with violent and disturbing hardships that came from slavery. Despite the challenges he faced Douglass found that education was the only way to truly escape slavery, and praises the fact that we should rethink and revaluate equality in the education