Ignorance In The Life Of Frederick Douglass Literary Analysis

In the Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, the issue of slavery is clearly established within the novel. Growing up within institutionalized slavery, Frederick Douglass recognized the immensity of the destruction that was the product of slavery. Slaves were not allowed to learn to read and write, in order to be kept ignorant of the system of slavery. With the forceful implementation of not allowing slaves to learn to read and write, their narrative cannot be told rather the narrative of the slaveholders can be. That being said, slavery ravaged the lives of many African Americans; the effects are often still felt in today’s modern world. The narrative of Fredrick Douglas is centered around the system of slavery and the theme that is constantly present is his story; not allowing slaves to read and write as well as the slaveholders imposing their religious doctrine upon them while violating the doctrine they preach. The struggle of understanding self-identify. …show more content…
In the text, Frederick Douglas witnesses the perpeptualized practices of keeping slaves in a perpetual state of ignorance to the actual system by which they are enslaved into; institutionalized ignorance. This problem of ignorance is witnesses and observed by Fredrick Douglas. The only way to awaken his consciousness and to understand the system and its meaning for his people, he begins to read and write. Frederick awakens to the institutional horrors and effects of slavery that slaveholders used. Slaveholder often used this tool of perpetual ignorance to continually oppresses the slaves and to keep them from learning about the customs and practices of slavery. For example, slaveholders would withhold basic information of individual, such as, their birth date and family linage according to the