Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave generously provided the reader with details of the situations Douglass witnessed and lived through himself, giving the reader a vivid realization of what it was like to be a slave in slave-holding America. After learning how to read and write, Douglass gained knowledge about the barbaric institution of slavery, and the contradictory lives the white slaveholders of the south lived. When you are denied something, you only want it more. Douglass’s mind had been starved of education, so any opportunity that came before him, he grabbed it with full force. Education is what aided Douglass in interpreting the bible in his own way, vastly differing from the white slaveholders of the South’s interpretations.

Religion plays a major role throughout Frederick Douglass’s narrative. After having been moved back and forth, through the hands of many masters, it became evident that these white slaveholders shared something in common. They lived their lives in the most contradicting manner possible. Douglass describes a situation where a former master named Auld used religion to justify an action: “I have seen him tie up a lame young women, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of scripture – He that knoweth his masters will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (261). This was one of the many events Douglass witnessed that only made him hungrier in interpreting the text these barbarous people used in defending their inhumane actions

Throughout the narrative, Douglass at times seemed as if he had views opposing religion: “Does a righteous God govern the universe? And for what does he hold the thunders in his right hand, if not to smite the oppressor, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the spoiler?” (272). Here, Douglass expresses a loss of faith after events that would shatter anyone’s spirit. In the appendix of this narrative, Douglass clarifies with the reader that he opposes the “slaveholding religion” and loves the pure Christianity of Christ. “The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus… He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me” (289). Frederick Douglass made it clear that he strictly defies the religion the white slaveholders aggressively practice and hold so dear and loves the version he interpreted on his own through his dedication to seek education.

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.”

When reading a work of fiction, readers are compelled to interpret symbols throughout the story. Cause for interpretation in novels is purposeful by the author to switch on the reader’s imagination. In doing so, in most cases, the author merely hints the symbol’s meaning, leaving the reader to digest and interpret the symbol by themselves. When reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, the reader cannot forget that this is not only a nonfiction autobiographical narrative, but also a critical piece of the puzzle to abolishing slavery in America. Frederick Douglass does not leave the reader open for any such interpretation. Instead, he spoon-feeds the reader exactly what he is thinking with no chance for misrepresentation of an argument he is attempting to tell.

“Our house stood within a few rods of Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye, of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition.” (264)

At this point in the narrative, Frederick Douglass has tasted a small portion of what it is to be a free man through experiencing education. Educating a slave was forbidden, yet he was able to find a way to read and begin to learn to write. This small bite of intellect swung the doors open to what it may be like to be free. Seeing these ships in what seems like a beautiful picturesque landscape, roaming freely in the harbor is even more painful to him now because of this taste of education. The opportunity he strove for that was bitterly taken away when he left Baltimore now haunts him (“shrouded ghosts”) and is so close physically yet so far in practicality. After reading this section of the story, I thought it was a gold mine to interpret, thinking I finally found what I can sink my teeth into as a blog post. But no, Frederick Douglass took it upon himself to take my opportunity to interpret away by following with a clear and concise explanation of exactly how he felt in that moment. I was very annoyed. But then I figured out exactly why he went ahead and explained it all himself. Frederick Douglass goes on to explain:

(Speaking of the ships) “You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free!” (265)

This was an obvious interpretation. A reader might think it was unnecessary to state these obvious feelings of jealousy towards a free sailing ship from a chained up slave. But something a reader must remember is that this narrative had a purpose. Frederick Douglass did a fantastic job captivating the reader with graphic details and a story of survival, but the goal to be achieved here is to abolish slavery. Frederick Douglass wanted the reader to stand in his shoes, feel the sweat dripping down his neck, and sink in his/her seat when realizing exactly how a slave felt in those times, with no room for error in understanding what happened to a slave in the South.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass emphasized the importance of how knowledge was the most powerful tool in the path of abolishing slavery. Frederick Douglass, the author of this novel, is given the opportunity to become literate by Mrs. Auld despite being a slave. He was taught the alphabet and various three to four letter words. Upon discovering the fact that Mrs. Auld was instructing Douglass how to read, Mr. Auld reprimanded Mrs. Auld. He informed her that, “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (250). Essentially, this quote demonstrated the consequences of a slave becoming educated in the eyes of a slave owner. Once a slave becomes educated, he would no longer become ignorant to the accessibility of freedom. Respectively, he would be able to reason and think for himself. Douglass included this pivotal scene in his narrative to illustrate his epiphany towards the idea of by simply learning how to read, he is able to achieve what slave owners dread, which is the use of knowledge to fight oppression. Douglass now understands that masters purposely deprive slaves of intelligence. Furthermore, they brainwash them to believe that they are inferior and their sole purpose in life is to obey their masters.

Douglass described the gore and violence of slavery as a, “… blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass” (238). Douglass also included many detailed and vivid imageries in hopes to shed a light on the horrors of slavery. An example of him portraying the violence of slavery is when he recalls the incidence of his Aunt Hester being whipped, “I have often been awakened at the dawn of the day by the most heartrending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood” (238). By highlighting these personal anecdotes of his life and the violent experiences faced by other fellow slaves through the form of literature, Frederick Douglass was able to expose the atrocious practice of slavery.

At first blush, I didn’t think much of the first line indention in Castro’s two-stanza poem, “I well know there is nothing,” nor did I linger on the length of the sentences afterwards. After reading this once, it’s a very easy read; it’s translated so well that I would have thought it was written within the last century or so. However, after further analysis, the structure of the two stanzas, as well as the way the words are arranged within the two stanzas, make me believe this poem is more than just a splurt of words on a piece of paper, a rant about a person’s feeling of meaninglessness–it’s a poem with a unique structure by a unique romantic poet.

I noticed in my second reading that no matter how the lines were rearranged, the poem still made sense. For instance:

I well know there is nothing
new under the sky,
forever the same.
that what I think of now
others have thought before.
Well, because we are so,
clocks that repeat
Well, why do I write?

I think the reason why this is so is because Castro is the kind of romantic poet whose work portrays spontaneity and what is natural, not what is orderly and strict. Castro is also a poet who prefers to keep things concise and visceral, which is made very obvious by this poem.

In addition, and this might be due to translation, the lines following the first indented line of each stanza inverts the other’s lines; so that line 2 of stanza one is the same length of the line 8 in stanza two, line 3 is the same length as line 7, and line 4 is the same length as line 6. This, along with line 7 (“clocks that repeat,”) made me think that this poem was a twisted reflection, like Anthony Burgess’ thoughts on mankind in his novel A Clockwork Orange. Then Castro was reflecting on more than just the meaninglessness she was feeling at the time.

The Story of the Stone is full of personal narratives, third person description of other’s stories, and conversations. These narratives, stories and conversations initiated the whole novel, introduced the main characters, and also allowed readers get to know the background and the relationships of the characters. The magical story of Jia BaoYu which is “at the moment of his birth he had a piece of beautiful, clear, colored jade in his mouth with a lot of writing on it” (535) was described by Zhen ZiXing during the conversation between Jia YuCun and Zhen ZiXing. Moreover, the novel is also mixed with poems and verses. These poems and verses help the readers understand the content better, some of the poems or verses are hints foreshadowing later developments in the story. “Pages full of idle words, Penned with hot and bitter tears” (526) this poem that the author used to describe The Story of the Stone tells the readers that this story is so distressing, full pf sadness. It set up the keystone of the whole story.

Speaking of symbolism, the author used a lot of it throughout the novel. The most important symbol in the first three chapters is the “stone”. The stone is a unique, magical used piece rock by the goddess. It became a “beautiful, clear, colored jade” (535) that came out from Jia BaoYu’s mouth. Jia BaoYu has same exact personalities like the stone. He is remarkable, extraordinary. He is someone special, and someone who doesn’t being seen so often in the society that BaoYu lives in. Besides, “Yu” means “jade” in Chinese. Actually, a lot of characters’ name has another meaning. For example, the last name “Jia” has the same pronunciation as the word “fake” and the last name “Zhen” has the same pronunciation as the word “real” in Chinese.  It is a pity that we can’t notice this easily because of the translation.

In traditional Chinese culture, women have much lower position than men in the society. On the contrary, Jia BaoYu has a completely different opinion regarding women. He thinks “girls are made of water and boys are made of mud” (535).  When he is with girls, he feels “flesh and clean”, but when he is with buys, he feels “stupid and nasty” (535). In his eyes, men and women is equal, and women should be respected as men. His thought challenges the traditional idea which is “men are superior to women”.

It would be great to live in one’s personal dream or fantasy, but that cannot happen. Instead, when the person wakes up from a dream or breaks out of a fantasy, the only things that awaits them is reality. In various parts of The Story of the Stone, the theme of the separation between what is true and what is false is repeatedly mentioned directly or inferred. Though some things are not easily identified to have connections with the theme, like the last names of the two male main characters, other things like the small characters inscribed on the arch have connections that are easier to be realized by the readers.

In Shiyin’s dream, he sees an arch with small characters inscribed on either side of it. The characters state “Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true; Real becomes not-real where the unreal’s real” (page 528). Later on in this chapter, it suddenly sinks in that the meaning of the small characters from his dream relates to Shiyin’s real life. Again, as though unreal becomes real, though Shiyin met the monk and the Taoist in a dream, he soon sees them approaching them when he was outside at the front of his house. The monk warns him to “beware the high feast of the fifteenth day”, which is the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival (page 529). The truth that Shiyin is good in wealth and happily lives with his wife and daughter makes the warning of the monk seem like an unreal prophecy because the bad things haven’t happened. Assuming that the “unreal” prophecy made by an immortal is true, the characters inscribed on the arch should describe that all the Shiyin’s happiness disappears when the unbelievable situation of his family being devastated by a misfortune becomes real. In this case, it is as if the unreal overwrites the real, making what was real now false.

The last names of the two main characters also have a role in assisting the portrayal of the theme. It wasn’t really easy to realize at first that in Chinese, “Zhen” and “Jia” mean “real” and “fake” respectively. Despite the total contrast of the meaning of their last names, these two characters coincidentally also have different social statuses. Zhen Shiyin is happily wed and supplied Yucun with money to the capital, Jia Yucun is a poor scholar that keeps himself alive by being a copyist. As if that was the end of the contrast between these two characters, they also become opposites by the end of chapter one. Shiyin becomes devestated according to the monk’s predictions and Yucun becomes less as poor when he returns to a near-by village. However, it is later revealed in chapter three that despite their outward appearance as being rich, Jia Yucun’s family members are having financial and family problems. Due to the false outward appearance of being wealthy, it relates back to the last name of “Jia” meaning fake. The author, Cao Xueqin seems to not have only portrayed contrast between truth and false directly, but he also uses “Zhen” Shiyin and “Jia” Yucun as a method to contrast truth and false in human form.

Brian Tang