Nawal El Saadawi’s In Camera illustrates the treatment of women under the judiciary system of an un-named government. She presents the trial of Leila Al-Fargani, a young woman arrested for her negative opinion of the President: “Imagine, ladies and gentlemen. This student, who is not yet twenty years old, refers to Him, whom God protect to lead this noble nation all his life, as ‘stupid’” (1109). Awaiting her hearing, she is imprisoned for several days, beaten, raped by prison guards, and is unknowingly presented to a courtroom. The text is introduced through the perspective of Leila, who is blind sighted either from having been inhumanely beaten or by blindfold; through her minimal view she struggles to apprehend her surroundings. Subtle clues and flash backs help both Leila and the reader understand the events leading to her current state. Upon her hearing, as the Judge speaks for Leila’s crime, many in the audience begin to applaud in support of her claim towards the President.

To be “born a female in a world that wants only males” is the central idea El Saadawi challenges in the text. In this society (presumably an Arabic or Islamic state) women are always placed at a disadvantage. As Leila’s Mother had explained to her “What’s politics got to do with you? You’re not a man. Girls your age think only about marriage…Politics is a dirty game which only ineffectual men play” (1109). Leila had stepped in forbidden territory and was to be punished for this “corruption” she had conveyed. To the men in this society, women are the “weaker” sex and are to be controlled. Women are not to express any notion or opinion to the system of oppression which they live in. Yet, Leila continued to stand true for her belief.  She is the black sheep in the herd; the one which stands from the rest and is followed by the others. El Saadawi’s work of activism encourages women to speak their voice, for they are never alone in this fight of equality. It is a topic that should not remain “in camera” or a “closed session” for that matter.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave provides a well-informed and vivid interpretation of horrors of slavery. In describing his life, from his birth in Talbot County, Maryland to his arrival in New York City, Frederick Douglass spends the majority of his narrative (Chapters I – IX specifically) moving from different plantations to homes and slowly learning to read and write, always at the risk of facing beatings from his master. It is into the later chapters where his knowledge of the inhumane system that is slavery grows exponentially, leading to his eventual freedom.

Again, as a narrative, Douglass’ graphic descriptions and strenuous life story provide a significant outlook into the past. However, his analysis of the systematics of slavery gives the reader a way to empathize; to truly understand the cruelty of these slave owners/masters and their revolting methods. Similar to the way slaves were entirely deprived of an education, slaveholders would employ tactics to trick their servants. Douglass describes the effect of receiving holidays as a slave: “The holidays are part and parcel of the gross fraud… This will be seen by the fact, that the slaveholders like to have their slaves spend those days just in such a manner as to make them as glad of their ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to be, to disgust their slaves with freedom, by plunging them into the lowest depths of dissipation” (269-70).  This practice is one of several Douglass observed which slaveholders would “disgust their slaves with freedom”, rather make it known that the slave will forever remain a slave. It is but a way of life.

In his career of slavery, it is certainly the physical treatment that pushed Fredrick Douglass over the edge: “I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered upon my eye died” (264). Yet despite all the hardships throughout his life he successfully stands above the inhumanity of the system in the triumphant stance as a “Liberator.”