Frederick Douglas Theme Paper

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Frederick Douglas Theme Paper Frederick Douglas proved courage can help anyone through such hard struggles. In the story The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, Douglas explains how he used his courage to overcome many different hardships. He shows this in the story when he survived living with an abusive owner, when he would not work because he was very sick, and finally when he gained respect by defending himself towards his owner which allowed him to gain some freedom as a slave. Mr. Covey, the owner of Douglas, was very abusive towards Douglas. Towards the end of the story, there was a part in the story when Douglas was sick and told Mr. Covey that he was sick and would not work. When Mr. Douglas proceeded to tell Mr. Covey this he knew in his mind that he was then going to take a beating. “I disregarded both his calls and his threats, and made my way to the woods as fast as my feeble state would allow.” (566, Douglas) This quote explains that Douglas had enough courage to ignore Mr. Covey screaming at him to come back and threatened that he would beat him more, but Douglas ignored him. For Douglas to run away from Mr. Covey and walk seven miles to enquire his freedom, while being very sick and having multiple wounds that he was bleeding from, requires an immense amount of courage. Frederick Douglas also proved that sticking up for himself helped himself out. Douglas proved this in the story when Douglas defends himself when Mr. Covey tries to hurt him. “At this moment from whence came the spirit I don’t know I resolved to fight.” (Douglas, 569) This quote explains how Douglas suddenly gained the courage out of nowhere to finally defend himself from Mr. Covey who had beaten Douglas down all the time like he was a ragdoll. However Douglas was finally done with the beating that had been going on. Douglas had the bravery to stick
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