Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Alice Walker

Language is an important tool through which one can express himself. Writers and poets of all nations have tried to express themselves, their beliefs, and experiences through their works. In fact, their works can be considered to be reflections of their own experiences. African American writers especially those who wrote about slavery represent a good example of the ability to reflect reality, enslavement and the African American experience as a whole through history. Among these famous African American writers were Frederick Douglass and Alice walker. Both Frederick Douglass and Alice walker, through their works, were able to reflect the suffering that black people experienced and went through. Frederick Douglass in his narrative was able …show more content…
Moreover, Frederick Douglass argues in his narrative that slaveholders manage to perpetuate slavery by keeping the slaves ignorant of basic and fundamental facts about themselves. Hence, this ignorance of basic facts, concerning their birth place or paternity, ends up in depriving them of their natural sense of individual identity “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Douglass 12). Hence, as mentioned earlier, slaves are left with identity crisis. However, Frederick Douglass in his narrative shows us how he was able to overcome the barriers that were placed by the slave owners as a means of preventing him from having an individual identity. In fact, Frederick’s identity progresses and grows throughout the whole novel. It starts with Douglass being not more than a typical black slave who is oppressed by white slave owners. Then it progresses with him being an educated free man. Moreover, we see this transition in identity in Alice walker’s novel “the color purple”. Alice Walker chooses a fictional character named Celia, an uneducated black girl who was raped by her father and abused by her husband, in order to highlight the fact that one’s own experience plays a major role in shaping one’s own identity and sexuality. Celia’s traumatic experience makes her an entirely passive individual, who is unable to defend herself or assert her power even in front of small children “Don’t let them run over you. Nettie says, you got to let them know who got the upper hand…They got it, I say” (Walker 17).Not only that but