Paper Example on Echoes of Freedom: Maya Angelou and Frederick Douglass on Slavery's Legacy

Mary Angelou is very straightforward and direct throughout the poem to express her feelings and experiences of and from slavery (DeGout, 2005). She uses simplicity and imagery in expressing guilt and strength themes in the poem. Implications of slavery are depicted in the first stanza of the poem. Families were captured, which led to them splitting up, and some members ended up dead as a result (DeGout, 2005).

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The poet is very hurt and broken because of the events of slavery that took too long to end, making her feel guilty. Drama, imagery, narrative, and rhythm illustrate the position of the African Americans, to be able to get through hard situations, pull through injustices and defeat, and hardships. The poem reflects on the lives of any human being who has gone through difficulty and still manages to get through (DeGout, 2005). To express her sad feelings, the poet uses the heroes of civil rights and slavery to illustrate self-discipline.

Structure

The poem is written in the quintet style, which means that it has three stanzas (DeGout, 2005). In each one of the three stanzas, a topic is being focused on. In the first stanza, the poet talks about guilt, crime in the second, and sin in the last one. As the poem progresses, the seriousness escalates, as she illustrates the happenings that are causing the guilt, she is feeling (DeGout, 2005). In the first stanza, she explains her feelings of guilt, which the cause is described in the second stanza, and finishes with the transition from internal factors to internal. The metaphysical realm is also illustrated in the poem in how the poet transitioned from crime in the second stanza to sin in the final verse. The spiritual realm is concerned with nature and the relationship between existing materials, which consists of logic that is unrealistic (DeGout, 2005).

Theme

Remorse or guilt is the central theme of the poem, how she feels towards the suffering and deaths that happened during the slavery days, injustices towards the civil rights movements, and the pain caused by racism and discrimination (DeGout, 2005). The poet has used the civil rights movement heroes in the second stanza, like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King as resistance and strength symbols. She says that the heroes fought too hard and loved too well to liberate the people held in captivity and for justice for every person (Angelou, 2015). The heroes fought so that the coming generations can have a fair chance at life, which is a feeling of remorse towards the remembrance of them, though honoring them.

The three attributes are well seen throughout the poem as they give the flow of incidences according to different times. In the second and third lines of the second stanza, the poet names the old and the new freedom fighters, and she embraces and acknowledges them by saying that she is alive to tell about their sacrifices. Maya admits that freedom is costly as it causes slavery, oppression, and death (DeGout, 2005).

Message

The poem is talking about gratitude and acknowledgment. The poet is grateful for the privileges people have right now, although there are people who suffered for that to be achieved; she acknowledges their efforts (DeGout, 2005). She talks about being grateful to be alive to tell the stories about how far she has come, and people should embrace the life they are living at the moment and recognize the challenges that have been there in the past. She also talks about making the best out of life because freedom was achieved instead of screaming loudly and wailing about history (DeGout, 2005).

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The narrative of the life of Fredrick is based on slavery and the effects of it. It is a history and exposition book that majors on the abolition of trade with which the author himself was a former slave (Dashner, 2020). The writer talks about the damaging effects that slavery had on the slaveholders (individuals owning slaves). In his narrative, Fredrick explains that the slaveholder’s good health was damaged by the irresponsive, authoritative, and corrupt power they had over their slaves (Dashner, 2020). Slavery is illustrated as unnatural for those that had been involved with the major theme being the adverse effects of slavery on the slaveholders. The author talks about knowledge and educates on how to be a knowledgeable person and how to handle yourself (Dashner, 2020). He talks about wisdom being both a power and a curse, depending on how it is used or applied. He says that knowledge should be used to better oneself, the people around, and the world at large.

The author's goal was the abolition of trade for people of color by promoting and improving the intellectual and moral aspects of life (Dashner, 2020). He also developed freedom by hurrying the day for the three million slaves to acquire it. The primary purpose of Frederick Douglass' autobiography was to persuade and educate his readers that slavery was supposed to be abolished. He talks about the lives of a slave and the realities that they go through, referencing his experience of relating to the people and achieving his goal (Gale, 2015).

The tone that Frederick Douglass uses in his narrative is engaging and straightforward, which follows the steps of a philosophical essay or a political position paper because he uses real-life experiences as evidence to support his arguments (Gale, 2015). The language that the author uses compared to now is constrained, but he uses short and simple sentences to understand his meanings (Gale, 2015) clearly. His language is informal, and he writes like he is addressing you personally like you are holding a conversation. The irony is occasionally used in the paper, as well as the tone of an emotionally defeated person. The central conflict in the article is the fight that the writer had to free himself from slavery, both mentally and physically (Gale, 2015). The writer argues about the immorality of slavery by using rhetorical devices to be credible and the ability to connect with the readers. He uses irony, pathos, anecdotes, and ethos. Imagery is also used in the book with the example where he explains Aunt Hester’s violent punishment in chapter one (Gale, 2015).

The writing style used can be further explained as understandable, elevated, old-fashioned biblical, and personal (Gale, 2015). The author uses ethos to announce his credibility towards the topics he is talking about; he notifies the reader that he was a slave when writing the book. Pathos is used to explain the lives that the slaves endure every day (Gale, 2015).

Personal Reflection

Both the poem and the book have one thing in common: slavery though one is talking about the freedom that was acquired by civil rights heroes while the other is depicting real-life experiences as a slave. The two writers were very educative about life and helped us embrace the freedom we have and make the best out of it. Any talks about slavery are regrettable and depressing. Still, we should wail around but acknowledge those who fought for the freedom we have now and respect them by working hard and persevering in every difficult situation that we might get into. According to the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, he talks about how the slaveholders used power and corruption to mistreat their slaves. In the current time, there are people in higher authority than others, people on top ranks in the job groups who can use power to oppress others. We should love each other, and treat everybody somewhat no matter the situation or condition so that not to make life harder for anybody. The poem by Maya Angelou has taught me to work hard embrace every excellent opportunity presented and still honor the past.

Examples of Other People Who Have Stood Up For Slavery

Angelina Grimke

She is remembered as an American abolitionist, a women's rights advocate, an activist, and a significant supporter of the suffrage women's movement (GRIMKE, 2015). Together with her sister Sarah More were the only southern white women who stood up for slavery. One of her most significant achievements was when she stood up to talk about slavery abolition in the 1938 Massachusetts State Legislature being the first woman ever to do so (GRIMKE, 2015).

John Brown

He is an American abolitionist who overthrew the institution of slavery by advocating and using armed insurrection (DuBois, 2015). During the bleeding of the Kansas crisis in 1856, he was the leader of several small volunteer groups despite being a white male, which led to his gaining national recognition. He became one of the leaders in the abolition movement in the pre-civil war (DuBois, 2015).

References

Angelou, M. (2015). Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry. Hachette UK. https://sites.google.com/site/books185pdf826/PDF-The-Complete-Poetry.pdfDeGout, Y. Y. (2005). The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique. The Langston Hughes Review, 19, 36-47. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26434636

Dashner, M. (2020). The Syntax of Slavery: A Linguistic Analysis of" Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.". https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=eng_capstone

Gale, C. L. (2015). A Study Guide for Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Gale, Cengage Learning. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vViqCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=The+Narrative+of+the+Life+of+Frederick+Douglass+purpose,+tone,+style,+and+rhetorical+stance&ots=xMWok2RrWc&sig=pwYPsq8pB11NZJ4BOxGQk2hE-RI

GRIMKE, S. (2015). ANGELINA GRIMKE. White Allies in the Struggle for Racial Justice. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NT-UCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT35&dq=Angelina+Grimke+abolitinist&ots=jE0IPD6Agq&sig=a-KapegJJV5yuMKfBUZ-Er0MACMDuBois, W. E. B. (2015). John Brown. Routledge. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wPPqBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=John+Brown+abolitionist&ots=oaxMec_vZV&sig=ppcmHjZ4MqvXvwJwotN5Kp5Hz2k