Have you ever been in a tough situation and don't know if you will get your way or not? Well in language arts, the students and I were assigned to read two passages and compare and contrast them. The first passage we read was, "Love Story of Jeffrey and Dorcas." It was about Jeffery, who had been sold to a new master and wanted Dorcas to come with him, so he fought to be with Dorcas. The second passages was, "An Account of Escaping Slavery." This story was about a young boy, Wesley Harris, and his friend and his two brothers trying to escape from slavery. They did anything to gain their freedom. Both of these passages are based on slavery, and faced a difficult situation. Jeffery and Wesley Harris had many differences, but also had similarities. …show more content…
First Jeffery and Harris both had determination during their situations. In the first passage, I know Jeffery was determined to make his new master buy Dorcas also because in the passage it states, "Young Mas'r, Dorcas prime woman--A1, sa. Tall gal, sir; long arm, strong, healthy, and can do a heap of work in a day. She is one of de best rice hands on de whole plantation; worth $1,200 easy, Mas'r, an' fus'rate bargain at that." From this sentence I know that Jeffery is trying to persuade his master to buy Dorcas. Jeffery also goes out and tells other buyers that Dorcas is not worth buying. In the second passage Harris was caught and took to Terrytown. As he stayed in jail, he thought of ideas of how to escape, the passage states, "As my wounds healed, and my senses came to me, I began to plan how to make another effort to escape." Harris was determined to escape the plantation he worked on and the jail in Terrytown. Second, Jeffery and Harris were risk takers, they were brave. In the first paragraph, Jeffery had been sold to a new master and Jeffery wanted Dorcas to be with him, so he put his life at risk and ask his master to buy Dorcas so they can be together. In the passage it states, "I loves Dorcas, young Mas'r; I loves her well an' true; she says she loves me, and I know she does; de good Lord knows I loves her better than I loves any one in de wide world--never could another woman half as well. Please buy Dorcas, Mas'r. We're be good servants to you long as we live. We're be married right soon, young Mas'r, and de chillun will be healthy and strong, Mas'r, and dey'll be good servants, too. Please buy Dorcas, young Mas'r. We loves each other a heap--do, really true, Mas'r." Slaves never talk or ask their masters anything, because it was considered disrespectful. If they did, they would be beat to death or killed. So when Jeffery asked his master to buy Dorcas, he was risking his life because he spoke
Both Voltaire’s satiric novel Candide and Frederick Douglass’s autobiographical Narrative chronicle the lives and struggles of two young men. Each young man experiences injustices in the course of his development. Candide faces his struggles by seeking material gain. Douglass faces his by discovering and applying his inner strength to find reliable sources to aid him in his journey.
Robert strategically planned his escape one night when he and the rest of the slaves were left to watch over the planter. Many slaves were scared of the repercussions if caught. Robert had nothing to lose, his freedom meant more than his life. The mission
In the 1830’s an American slave Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. Douglass soon after embarked on a mission to end slavery. The best way to end slavery were to “shine a light” on slavery and to tell a story to people that did not know. Northerners who read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” were either against slavery or supportive of slavery. Douglass argues that slavery corrupted slave owners, and slavery was terrible for slaves.
The conditions of the ships the slaves were on and the minds of the slaves are detailed most effectively in this first person documentary. Sharing the story of the enslavement and subsequent freedom of the brothers and their probable return to the slave trade gives a better insight into the journey of slavery from the eyes of the enslaved and those doing the enslavement. Sparks story helps the reader understand that the same Africans that were sold as slaves, were also involved in the selling of slaves. He also defends the brothers decision to enslave others explaining that since this was part of their culture, they didn’t know anything else or how to live any other way than to enslave others as they once were
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an enticing tale of Douglas as he changes from slave to man. Near the beginning of the book, his first witness of a whipping reveals the entrance to the horrors that would come throughout his experience with enslavement. “No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim…” (4) it displays the physical, emotional, and spiritual breaking of an individual; powerful words to create an understanding of the terror of slavery. Beating into absolute submission strikes a sense of sadness, pity, justice in the reader that encourages them to see slavery in a different light. Throughout his narrative he continues to attack these points to encourage similar feelings of pity and acknowledgement “to enlighten white readers about both the realities of slavery as an institution and the humanity of black people as individuals deserving of full human rights.”.
The books that are being compared and contrasted are both about The Civil War and what these soldiers went through. Each book has a few differences that separate them. The books are based on the same time period so they are going to have a lot in common. The books describe what both characters had to go through during the war. The differences in the book will show you how each soldier went through the war differently and the similarity’s will show you how it was for most of the soldiers in the Civil War.
Hope and fear, two contradictory emotions that influence us all, convicted Frederick Douglass to choose life over death, light over darkness, and freedom over sin. Douglass, in Chapter ten, pages thirty-seven through thirty-nine, of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, utilizes various rhetorical techniques and tone shifts to convey his desperation to find hope in this time of misery and suffering. Mr. Covey, who Douglass has been sent to by his master to be broken, has succeeded in nearly tearing all of Douglass’s dreams of freedom away from him. To expound on his desires to escape, Douglass presents boats as something that induces joy to most but compels slaves to feel terror. Given the multiple uses of repetition, antithesis,
Pg 178. At this lodge he met an older gentlemen named Elroy Berdahl, Tim had spent a total of 6 days at this lodge, where he learnt a lot about himself, Throughout the stay, Elroy never asked much about Tim; where he had come from, what he was running from, anything about his family. On the last day, Elroy had taken him out to go ‘’fishing’’ where they crossed the Canadian border, here is where Tim lost himself briefly, He thought about jumping and swimming across, He looked for reassurance, thinking ‘’ What would you do, would you jump?’’ He did this in his head but acted like he was talking to a different person. He then visioned his family and how they opposed what he was doing, his friends and future family as well.
With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and in different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. ”(7) The character developement of Douglass’ planning is overshadowed by the humanism inside the children. The white boys Douglass meets have not yet been exposed to severe racism and the hate of black Americans, and humanistically teach Douglass how to read as if he was just another boy. Humanism seems to be an overlooked theme throughout Douglass narrative, the system of thought of putting humans before divinity and emphasizing human empathy is truly a large theme in how slavery has
Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.
Although chapter four of “The Boy’s Ambition” by Mark Twain and chapter five of Frederick Douglass's “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” were written in the 1800’s and tell about the author's childhood, they are written very differently. While Twain uses exaggeration to create humor, Douglass uses a formal diction to create ethos. The use of these writing techniques make each piece of writing believable and lasting. Although the situation for each author was very different, the similarities between the texts show the similarities in their character.
The trip he took north to the Tip Top Lodge in “On The Rainy River,” mentally prepared him for making the decision of either going to war or running away to Canada. Elroy Berdahl, the owner of Tip Top Lodge, helped guide O’Brien to make a decision for himself. “It struck me that he must’ve planned it. I’ll never be certain, or course, but I think he meant to bring me up against the realities, to guide me across the river and to take me to the edge and to stand a kind of vigil as I chose a life for myself” (O’Brien 56). By going to Canada he feared resentment, embarrassment, and lost respect from those he cared about, this made the decision for him.
They both use their unique experiences in the difference facets of slavery to show a very complete picture of the problems and atrocities of slavery. Douglas and Jacobs were both part of the horrible system know as the slavery. They both expressed some similar complains about slavery. One of those examples is that there can be no good slave owner and how it can turn even a kind person into a monster.
In “On the Rainy River” Tim struggles to make a decision on whether he should fight for his country in the war or flee to Canada. Tim did not believe in the war. He was an innocent young man, freshly graduated from college with a naive view of the world. “Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop.” (Page 3/Paragraph 8)
He uses these experiences to show just how unjust the treatment towards slaves was. As a child, he was not allowed to learn like many of the white children were, they wanted to keep the slaves ignorant