Arianna Jara – The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 

In chapter VII paragraph 5 of the narrative, Douglass is voicing how slavery has affected his state of mind while also discovering more about the abolitionist movement. He starts the paragraph by stating “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead” (254). This shows how slavery not only physically affected slaves but it took a toll on them mentally as well. Douglass mentions how he should have thought about killing himself and indicates how that would have led to freedom. Moreover, while he turned his attention to any conversation of that mentioned slavery he began learning about the world abolition. While I read the steps he took to find out what the word meant I wondered how he was able to get the newspaper that contained abolitionist petitions without getting caught. I think this also demonstrates how determined Douglass was with wanting to be educated. Further into the paragraph, he helps two Irishmen who ask Douglass “Are ye a slave for life?” (254) and who seem to feel sorry for his life as a slave. The Irishmen told him to run away to the north so he could be free but Douglass pretended to not understand what they were talking about. What I found most interesting about this lack of exchange is Douglass’ reaction to it. He didn’t believe that those two men were genuine with their intentions because white men would usually encourage slaves to run away so that they could catch them and get a reward. This demonstrates how slaves couldn’t trust anyone for the fear of being punished and shows another example of how psychologically tormented they were. Douglass did not want to take that risk but he did remember the advice of the two Irishmen as he notes towards the end of the paragraph. Furthermore, Douglass began learning how to write after that encounter which made me think about his diction and literary style in this narrative. His writing style felt very personal since he was retelling his life and was bringing the readers along with him on his journey. Consequently, this is why the story had a natural flow and was easy to understand.