The Theme Of Freedom In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative

Frederick Douglas is a renowned American orator and writer in the nineteenth century.His Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,an American Slave,Written by Himself,published in 1845,is a model of slave narratives in the United States,depicting Douglass’ s experience as a slave and his journey to freedom.This thesis takes the autobiography as the research object,exploring its freedom theme through textual analysis.Different from previous studies,this thesis starts from “psyche” and “body”,and conducts a detailed and systematic analysis of the struggle and resistance of black slaves in a society dominated by slave owners.In this way,this thesis delves deep into the theme of freedom and practical significance contained therein,with the aim of provoking more debates and thoughts about freedom.The main body of the thesis is composed of three chapters.From the angle of “psyche”,the first chapter mainly discusses the psychological oppressions imposed by white slave owners on slaves and the resistance of slaves in Douglass’ s narrative,and analyze the awakening of the consciousness of freedom during the struggle.By depriving the slaves of their birthdates,manipulating their conception of time,and establishing a panoptic prison on the plantation,white slave owners wreaked great damage to slaves’ mind.The series of resistances carried out by slaves gradually gave birth to the awakening of their free consciousness,reflecting that slaves’ mind was both the object of oppression and the place where the consciousness of freedom was awakened.From the “body” perspective,the second chapter focuses on the oppressions over the body of a slave and the resistances of the body,and discusses the pursuit of freedom in the process of resisting domination.White slave owners tried to dominate the slave body through physical punishment and body management.The powerful vitality displayed by the slave body prompted the slave to get rid of control and gain freedom.This shows that although the slave body is the object of manipulation,it is also the source that contains huge emancipatory potential.Based on the discussion of freedom in the first two chapters,the third chapter centers on the reflection of freedom.This chapter first discusses the racialized nature of freedom,which is embodied in the different interpretations of freedom between whites and blacks,and in the strange fact that whites’ freedom is more free than blacks’ freedom.In addition,this chapter also analyzes different understandings of freedom by slave owners and slaves to elicit Douglas’ interpretation of freedom and further explore the theme of freedom in Douglass’ s slave narratives—the freedom of both mind and body.Douglass’ s narrative delineates the dilemma of freedom he faced in an enslaving society and his pursuit of freedom.Through a textual reading of the narrative,this thesis analyzes a series of psychological struggles and physical resistance in the work,and examines Douglass’ s plight and exploration of freedom in the context of his own time.In this way,the thesis discusses Douglass’ s thoughts on freedom and points out the racialized nature of freedom,proposing that the major characteristic of Douglass’ s idea of freedom is its absolute freedom of mind and body achieved by resisting all forms of oppression.