Phoebe Wolfe
Professor Neary
ENGL 399.96: Race and Visual Culture
10/30/2014
Frederick Douglass’s Demolition and Reconstruction of Visual Codification
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass exemplifies the complexities and paradoxes involved in the genre of the slave narrative. While, at many points in the narrative, Douglass appears to be merely conforming to the standard requirements of the slave narrative genre, the subtleties and intricacies of his work challenge both common characterizations of slaves and the narrative conventions themselves. By appropriating the very mechanisms and tropes that readers expected of him, Douglass retools traditional techniques to illustrate his specific account of slavery and to assert his humanity. …show more content…
In Chapter X, Douglass gathers a group of slaves to contemplate the possibility of escape from their master, Mr. Freeland. As they are discussing the details of running away, the fear of death is perpetually looming in their plans, at times paralyzing them from realizing their freedom. Douglass’s imagery reveals to the reader that running away was not a lazy or casual endeavor – it required immense skill, endurance, and luck. Douglass personifies slavery to describe the horrors of the system they were presently subjected to: “On the one hand, there stood slavery, a stern reality, glaring frightfully upon us, -- its robes already crimsoned with the blood of millions, and even now feasting itself greedily upon our own flesh” (61). The reader recoils at the image of slavery, but then is surprised by the similarly appalling depiction of the road to freedom. No matter the slave’s choice, “upon either side we saw grim death, assuming the most horrid shapes…We were stung by scorpions, chased by wild beasts, bitten by snakes, and finally, after having nearly reached the desired spot…we were overtaken by our pursuers, and, in our resistance, we were shot dead upon the spot!” (62). Douglass’s syntax, with his extensive use of dashes, represents the tumultuous journey of the runaway slave, always running and out of breath. The implication of this image …show more content…
Rather than giving readers – particularly Northerners whose anti-slavery cause depended on depiction of violence against slave bodies – what they would have expected, Douglass leaves actual people outside of his imagery. Douglass’s depiction of violence is hypothetical, merging fiction with reality, without divulging his own means of running away. His choice to use the abstract instead of the real is significant. “As the maker of metaphors,” Goddu explains, “Douglass is able to write himself out of embodiment and into abstraction. Through his mastery of language, he claims – even as he critiques it as fantastical – his Northern white readers’ bird’s-eye view” (32). While Goddu is specifically addressing Douglass’s balloon metaphor of escape, it is also applicable to this scene. Douglass is – quite ironically – both adopting and critiquing the perspective of his Northern readers. In abolitionist images or accounts of runaway slaves, the journey would be represented in a similarly dramatic, graphic way. “In Douglass’s narrative,” Wood explains, “this troping of the act of running away in the form of a grand hunt scene is not presented in terms of Douglass’s own experience. Instead, he provides a breakdown of the narrative ingredients of the slave hunt in the form of the communal fantasy…It is as if they are as much victims of the white rhetoric
Professor Neary
ENGL 399.96: Race and Visual Culture
10/30/2014
Frederick Douglass’s Demolition and Reconstruction of Visual Codification
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass exemplifies the complexities and paradoxes involved in the genre of the slave narrative. While, at many points in the narrative, Douglass appears to be merely conforming to the standard requirements of the slave narrative genre, the subtleties and intricacies of his work challenge both common characterizations of slaves and the narrative conventions themselves. By appropriating the very mechanisms and tropes that readers expected of him, Douglass retools traditional techniques to illustrate his specific account of slavery and to assert his humanity. …show more content…
In Chapter X, Douglass gathers a group of slaves to contemplate the possibility of escape from their master, Mr. Freeland. As they are discussing the details of running away, the fear of death is perpetually looming in their plans, at times paralyzing them from realizing their freedom. Douglass’s imagery reveals to the reader that running away was not a lazy or casual endeavor – it required immense skill, endurance, and luck. Douglass personifies slavery to describe the horrors of the system they were presently subjected to: “On the one hand, there stood slavery, a stern reality, glaring frightfully upon us, -- its robes already crimsoned with the blood of millions, and even now feasting itself greedily upon our own flesh” (61). The reader recoils at the image of slavery, but then is surprised by the similarly appalling depiction of the road to freedom. No matter the slave’s choice, “upon either side we saw grim death, assuming the most horrid shapes…We were stung by scorpions, chased by wild beasts, bitten by snakes, and finally, after having nearly reached the desired spot…we were overtaken by our pursuers, and, in our resistance, we were shot dead upon the spot!” (62). Douglass’s syntax, with his extensive use of dashes, represents the tumultuous journey of the runaway slave, always running and out of breath. The implication of this image …show more content…
Rather than giving readers – particularly Northerners whose anti-slavery cause depended on depiction of violence against slave bodies – what they would have expected, Douglass leaves actual people outside of his imagery. Douglass’s depiction of violence is hypothetical, merging fiction with reality, without divulging his own means of running away. His choice to use the abstract instead of the real is significant. “As the maker of metaphors,” Goddu explains, “Douglass is able to write himself out of embodiment and into abstraction. Through his mastery of language, he claims – even as he critiques it as fantastical – his Northern white readers’ bird’s-eye view” (32). While Goddu is specifically addressing Douglass’s balloon metaphor of escape, it is also applicable to this scene. Douglass is – quite ironically – both adopting and critiquing the perspective of his Northern readers. In abolitionist images or accounts of runaway slaves, the journey would be represented in a similarly dramatic, graphic way. “In Douglass’s narrative,” Wood explains, “this troping of the act of running away in the form of a grand hunt scene is not presented in terms of Douglass’s own experience. Instead, he provides a breakdown of the narrative ingredients of the slave hunt in the form of the communal fantasy…It is as if they are as much victims of the white rhetoric