The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is a very inspirational work of art. The narrative, which was written by Frederick Douglass, a slave, is in itself an example of perseverance and strength. It debunked the idea that slaves were not intelligent beings or capable of thought. He proves to be smart even before he knew how to read and write. There are many interesting things in his narrative; particularly when Mr. Auld, his master, finds out that Mrs. Auld has been teaching him the ABCs. His reaction to this event is not what one would expect from a slave. He listened to what Mr. Auld said: “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. (page 250 chapter vi)” And instead of accepting this and conforming to his master’s ideas, he speculated why it would be so bad if he knew how to read. He understood it as a door that had just opened; if his master did not want him to do this, then there must be some advantage for him if he pursued it.

It’s important to keep in mind that he was a slave that clearly had other and more immediate things to care about, like cold nights, hunger and solitude, but instead he focused on learning to read. He was young then and it is debatable if he understood the depths of his condition in society; so it is intriguing that he had this spark within himself that would rather worry about feeding his mind instead of his belly. Frederick had this notion in his head that something great would happen to him if only he had knowledge. He was completely right about that, knowledge frees the mind. One can enslave the body, but can never enslave a free mind. However, it is one thing to know what is going on in society, but another thing to be able to change it. He could not change his condition, even though he knew it well that what people did to him and his fellow slaves was very wrong and inhumane. In his narrative he confessed that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” and that he “envied his fellow-slaves for their stupidity. (page 254)” Now he suffered more than his fellow slaves, because he constantly reminded himself of the degrading position that he occupied.  He wanted to be free, but that seemed like a very distant dream that could not be attained…

Another interesting aspect of his narrative is the way that he does not crucify his masters and their class; much on the contrary, he says that slavery was brutalizing upon both slave and slaveholder. This statement shows again Douglass’ intelligence because it puts slaves and white people on the same level, making whites relate to the slaves. By doing that, white people would want to read the narrative for in the end, propagate the cause. It is easy to acknowledge this because it’s not like slaveholders did not have a choice but to keep black people captive; even if that was the case, if that was the only way to run the plantation, they still could be treated as human beings with dignity. Regardless of what he really felt, this was a smart move; not blaming whites in general and only retelling of some mean slaveholders, he got the rest of the white people to stand with him to save both blacks and whites from the evil institution of slavery.