The biography of Frederick Douglass that introduces Frederick Douglass’s autobiography notes that, “…recent readers have been more inclined to admire the literary artfulness of the Narrative, its metaphoric complexity, and careful construction” (234). After reading just the first half of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, I believe this statement to be immensely truthful. Part of the admiration towards Douglass’s autobiography stems from the fact that he learned how to read and write under the harsh conditions of slavery. Gaining these skills proved to be more than just a catalyst in his education. Learning how to read and write acted as a form of rebellion to Douglass. Douglass explains that learning how to read is a form of defiance when he writes, “the argument which [Mr. Auld] so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only severed to inspire me with desire and determination to learn” (Douglass 251). Douglass writes this as the result of his mistress’s husband, Mr. Auld, condemning her for teaching Douglass how to read and write. This moment was also one of the many instances where Douglass realized the dehumanizing effects slavery had on an individual. Being denied something that was deemed as trivial to those who weren’t enslaved caused Douglass to see that these were all elements that gave, “…the white [man power] to enslave the black man” (Douglass 251). Such aspects that were stripped from slaves to keep them enslaved, both mentally and physically, included the discouragement to learn how to read, the lack of knowledge of their age (Douglass 236), the scarcity of proper clothing, and the constant shortage of food that left slaves hungry. As readers, we are forced to see the barbarity that is the practice of slavery through the subtleties of Douglass’s diction. For example, Douglass notes that he, “…was seldom whipped by [his] old master, and suffered little from any thing else than hunger and cold” (Douglass 248). This causes the reader to pause because the dehumanizing humbleness that underlies within this sentence is perplexing. Any amount of whipping, minimal or plentiful, is a lot because it is an act of violence, but Douglass describes his experience as seldom. Furthermore, Douglass says that he solely agonized starvation and severe weather, which to the reader is astonishing because the two states are awful on their own, but Douglass deems them as nothing severe. This insinuates that Douglass or other slaves have been in far more worst conditions to believe that these already terrible states are not as bad in comparison, further revealing the cruelty that is slavery. This astonishment that Douglass stirs within his readers reoccurs throughout the passage. For example, Douglass wishes to have remained ignorant of situations that distracted him from his reality of being a slave. When Douglass writes, “I suffered more anxiety than most of my fellow-slaves [because] I had known what it was to be kindly treated” (Douglass 256) and “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse…[because] it had given me a view of my wretched conditions, without remedy,” (Douglass 254) he further emphasizes that living life as a slave is only bearable if one is starved of affection and knowledge. Affection and knowledge are vital components to human survival, but Douglass implies that ignorance of these two aspects are the only way to bear the cruelties of slavery, further highlighting the dehumanizing conditions of slavery.