Education = Human Freedom

     In the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas," the slaves did not have any freedom, and they were not allowed to get an education. They had no freedom whatsoever, even their minds and spirits did not always belong to them. I think that the lack of education and human freedom relate to each other in many ways.

     Most humans have a very strong drive to live, which is partly due to their education. They have learned so much about the world, and they can read and write and more. Slaves did not have this. They did not have that drive to live and escape, except for the slaves who, like Frederick Douglas, had somehow recieved an education. Education gave slaves the will to live, and the drive to escape.

     The skills of reading and writing are unique to humans, and most people are taught to read and write at some point in their life. But slaves were not humans in the eyes of the slaveholders, and they were not allowed to acquire that skill, because it would separate them from cattle and land, and make them more "human;" more like the people who were taking their freedoms.

The Ability To Read and Write = Freedom From Slavery?

     In this book, the ability to read and write was mentioned many times. When mentioned by the slave owners, they told Mr. Douglas that it was not right for a slave to be able to read, and when mentioned by Mr. Douglas, it was mostly about the want to learn to read, the hard path to it, and finally being able to read and write.
     The fact that learning to read and write could give slaves the path to freedom was stated for the first time by Mr. Auld on page 20, and then again many times after that by various masters. I agree that learning to read and write would give slaves the needed boost to escape if they so desired. Learning to read and write brought slaves out of the dark, and, like Mr. Douglas, they could learn things the slave owners did not want them to know, For example, abolitionism on page 25. Learning to read also gave slaves the necessary means to communicate over long distances, and they could have potentially organized and insurrection. In this book learning to read gave the slaves something much simpler, but just as powerful: it gave them something to bond over. On pages 48 and 49, Mr. Douglas talks about how he taught many other slaves to read and write, and he came to love a few of them so powerfully that he said he would die for them. This ultimately led to the attempted escape on pages 52 and 53.

Harsh Punishments for minor offenses in "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas."

     In his book, especially in the first few chapters, Frederick Douglas talks about various slave owners and overseers, major and minor offenses, and the punishments for the offenses. Most of the offenses were punished by whipping, and both major and minor offenses were punished with the amount of lashes that the overseer saw as fit, which was usually a lot, and in some cases, till the overseer got tired. 

     Slaves were harshly punished for even minor crimes like stealing fruit from the garden. I think that the overseers and slave owners punished the slaves very harshly for these minor offenses for three reasons. The first reason, to keep other slaves from committing the same offense, is pretty simple. If a slave is punished very harshly for something small, for example stealing fruit from a garden, other slaves will be much less inclined to commit the same offense for fear of the extremely harsh punishment. The second reason is to teach the slaves to be obedient. I think that, in the same way that you would teach a young child not to do something by reprimanding them with a sometimes harsh punishment, the slave owners might have believed that if they punish a slave very harshly for doing something small, it will probably keep the slave from doing that thing, any small thing, and almost definitely any big thing again. The third reason is that many of the slave owners or overseers, for example Mr. Severe, and many people in general, just enjoy hurting other people, which is awful, but true.

MFA Photo

     A photo that I saw at MFA that I thought represented some of the characteristics of English Renaissance Poetry was a portrait of Elizabeth Cary, the Viscountess of Falkland by Paul van Somer. This painting fit the right time and place for the English Renaissance, and it represented it to me in many ways.
     I think that this photo represents individuality and self, one of the themes of English Renaissance Poetry, very well because this is a portrait of a very powerful looking woman by herself, and it makes her look like a very important, strong, and independent woman. Another characteristic of English Renaissance Poetry that I see in this painting is the imagry. This poem has very bright colors against a dark background, which make the Viscountess, the curtains, and the table stand out, and makes this painting very appealing to the eye.
     I did a little background research on Elizabeth Cary, and found out that she was actually a poet and a dramatist during the English Renaissance when she lived. I thought this was very interesting because you do not hear of that many women poets from the English Renaissance, and it is very interesting that I stumbled upon a painting of her while at the museum.

English Renaissance Major Poetic Characteristics

     There are several major characteristics of English Renaissance Poetry in the Poem that I chose to write about: 

When I Do Count the Clock that Tells the Time

By William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;

When lofty trees I see barren of leaves, 

Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,

And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,

Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,

Then of thy Beaty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go,

Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake

And die as fast as they see others grow;

And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defense

Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

     This poem is a sonnet, like most poems during that time, you can tell by both the rhyme scheme and the use of Iambic pentameter. The typical rhyme scheme of a sonnet is 3 quatrains and a court plet: ABAB/ CDCD/ EFEF/ GG. This is another major characteristic of English renaissance poems, and it is used in this poem. Iambic Pentameter is also used in this poem. Iambic Pentameter is where each verse of a poem has ten syllables, and the syllables are in a pattern of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long, stressed syllable. This is another characteristic of English Renaissance Poetry that can be seen in this poem. The iambic pentameter is actually broken on the third verse of this poem, which calls attention to the verse. The last characteristic that I found in this poem is the enjambent. There is a lot of enjambment in this poem, and there is only a period at the end.