Literary Essay Sample: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July

Published: 2019-05-15
Literary Essay Sample: What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July
Type of paper:  Essay
Categories:  Poem Literature Slavery
Pages: 4
Wordcount: 1095 words
10 min read
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Use of powerful language in Douglasss work achieves one thing. It draws the attention of the audience to issue of slavery. It also signals to the audience that he is really convinced that people of color are humans and should be treated as such. This language in a way shows that Black people are knowledgeable. Blacks had been viewed as inferior beings and he wanted to alter that view. Rhetorical questions are persuasive. They influence the audiences response. Douglass wanted to get support against slavery. These rhetorical questions were a way of getting the audience to think beyond what they always had. It would open their minds to seeing things in another light. But.at the thought that America is young and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give her direction to her destiny?

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Frederick Douglass sought to point out to people why slavery and racism were wrong. He desired to see the Northerners embrace the Abolition movement that sought to have slavery abolished. His speech starts with a recap of Americas history. It goes back to the struggle for independence. Douglass praises the Statesmen who were patriotic enough to see the fight through. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them nothing was settled that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression..their statesmanship looked beyond passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. Douglass achieves his purpose by pointing out the great accomplishments the country had made to that time. But with all the jubilation and all the enthusiasm, slaves, had nothing to celebrate on this day. Slavery-the greatest sin and shame in America. Using words like The Constitution, The Bible, Liberty and humanity also helped in appealing to people to put an end to slavery. He urges the audience to fulfill what the countrys founders advocated for (Douglass, 1818-1895)Question Four: Lack of concern in the Song of myself and democracy.

In the poem the voice I is the narrator. The I is not the small, unique personal ego. It is the human self that experiences all the activities in the world while it remains detached. I exist as I am, that is enough, if no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content. It interacts with everything inn creation and ranges freely over time and space. It is spontaneous and self-sufficient. It experiences everything from sexuality to spirituality. It lacks indiscriminate inclusion of all life experiences. Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass all the arguments of the earth. To the narrator, human-beings are all bound together like brother and sisters.The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies..More important is the eternal procreant urge of the world.

The poem is about Whitmans life. It talks of his environment, sensuality, vocabulary, rapture and love. It gives a picture of being both an individual and part of the larger society. It, therefore, tries to capture the experiences on has in both instances. The I is a universal reference to the self. What I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. The I is a literature invention designed to embody the universe. It caters to the all-seeing American society that has a vast, expanding land. There should be no concern at all of this inclusion. To Whitman life is a beauty and he is the representative of all humanity. He upholds democracy by perceiving everything in the created world as being Devine. All human beings are equal and we should empathize with our fellow beings. I do not ask how a wounded fellow feels, I myself become the wounded.(whitman, 1819-1892)

Question Five: Application of foreshadowing in The Yellow Wall-Paper.

When the narrator first describes the room she and her husband John sleep in, she uses dramatic irony to bring out the picture of the wall-paper. It is torn-it must have been used as a nursery before. A more plausible explanation would be that it has been used to house an insane person before. The wall paper becomes a wonder even to the other characters as the story progresses. From the beginning, the reader can see the emphasis the narrator puts on the wall paper. I suppose John never was nervous I his life. He laughs at me so about this wall paper. Soon enough the narrator catches Jennie starring at the wall paper. She claims she has just figured out the source of the yellow stains in their clothes. The paint and paper look as if a boys school had used it. It is stripped off-the paper- in greater patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.

The narrator introduces the wall paper at the start of the story to signify something that was humble. But in its current state it is formless, rippled, soiled and unclean yellow. Effects of this foreshadowing, intensifies as the story progresses. She later focuses its formless patterns to form a picture of a cage with many womens heads. The narrator discovers that there is a crawling woman who is trapped in the wall-paper. She locks herself in the bed-room in an attempt to rescue the crawling woman. The use of the words; flamboyant, sprawling, dull and lame to describe the same thing and at the same time signifies the narrators inability to comprehend how a piece of paper, her only companion can be so ugly..and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save the lack of strength. She describes her journal as a relief to her mind. The description also exhibits a peculiar personality trait(Gilman, 1860-1935).

References

Douglass, F. (1818-1895). What to The Slave is the Fourth of July? In J. Reidhead, The Norton Anthology american Literature (pp.67-74)). New York: W.W Norton & Company Inc.

Gilman, C. P. (1860-1935). The Yellow Wallpaper. In J. Reidhead The Norton Anthology American Literarture (pp. (p.326-332). New York: W.W Norton & company Inc.

Whitman, W. (1819-1892). Song of Myself. In J. Reidhead, The Norton Anthology american Literature (pp. (p.21-24)). New York: W.W Norton & Company Inc.

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