The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an astonishing piece of work, and as highly affecting today as it was when it was published in 1845. Almost twenty years prior to the abolition of slavery, Douglass’s voice is one of strength and oratorical confidence. While the work is highly realistic, it is also romantic in nature. I want to show how the Romantic elements serve to create the highest possible effect for abolitionism.
Prior to Frederick Douglass’s entrance in to the forum of Abolitionism, it was clearly recognized that blacks needed to speak with their own voices. But as Alex Bontemps illustrates in his book The Punished Self, “so deafening has the silence (and silencing) of black voices been to historians of slavery in American that it has virtually drowned out. . . . the subjectivity of blacks and blacks as subjects in their own right” (Bontemps 4). Asserting an alternative view of African American slaves proved to be difficult, as millions of Negro slaves have found themselves unrepresented in any authentic form.
David Walker, a prominent abolitionist, revolutionary, and writer for African American publications, wrote in his famous Appeal, In Four Articles, first published in 1828, that the full story of American history would only be told when historians of color would rise up and present the crimes of …show more content…
While the content is radically different, there are many common elements in the structure. While the reality of Douglass’s experiences is anything but a romance, his story shares many things with the genre. Some of a romance’s characteristics are a journey and a separation culminating in a need to rescue someone. The action can be a transformation of the self, or a reinvention of social class, leading to transcendence. The characters in a romance are also moral absolutes, representing good and evil (Lit 4533: Tragedy, White
Prior to Frederick Douglass’s entrance in to the forum of Abolitionism, it was clearly recognized that blacks needed to speak with their own voices. But as Alex Bontemps illustrates in his book The Punished Self, “so deafening has the silence (and silencing) of black voices been to historians of slavery in American that it has virtually drowned out. . . . the subjectivity of blacks and blacks as subjects in their own right” (Bontemps 4). Asserting an alternative view of African American slaves proved to be difficult, as millions of Negro slaves have found themselves unrepresented in any authentic form.
David Walker, a prominent abolitionist, revolutionary, and writer for African American publications, wrote in his famous Appeal, In Four Articles, first published in 1828, that the full story of American history would only be told when historians of color would rise up and present the crimes of …show more content…
While the content is radically different, there are many common elements in the structure. While the reality of Douglass’s experiences is anything but a romance, his story shares many things with the genre. Some of a romance’s characteristics are a journey and a separation culminating in a need to rescue someone. The action can be a transformation of the self, or a reinvention of social class, leading to transcendence. The characters in a romance are also moral absolutes, representing good and evil (Lit 4533: Tragedy, White