Conflict of Religion and Slavery in the Frederick Douglass Narrative Essay

Conflict of Religion and Slavery in the Frederick Douglass Narrative - Essay Example Religion is not the domain of the dermatologist. The arguments of the whites to view religion from the perspective of color needs to be dismissed without further arguments, as only lunatics can forward such a point of view. Those who justify slavery quoting scriptures are like Satan quoting the Bible. They just do not possess an elementary knowledge about the revelation. Douglass encounters with the so-called Christians, who treat slaves in the most inhuman style, shake his belief in religion. Mr. Severe, overseer in charge at Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, is one of such individuals. As the divinity intervenes he dies as soon as Douglass arrives there. The gullible and innocent slaves take it as a blessing from God. The replacement for his place, Mr. Hopkins, is a good person. The love-hate tussles as for religion in his mind continue, and he thinks that it is a good fortune that he is not one of the slavery victims when he is selected and shifted to the Great House Farm, where life is comfortable. The cruel strokes of destiny fallen on his grandmother who is left to die alone shake his faith in God, and he puts his judgment to test by asking questions about His style of functioning. What deeply pains Douglass is the hypocrites donning the garb of preachers as guardians of religion. Some of them are Master Thomas, the Methodist who holds the sla ves on the plea that he takes care of them, but in reality he does not spare even a crippled girl named Henny from his practices of cruelty. At St. Michael’s, a Sabbath school for slaves established by Whiteman is closed under the violent threats by white religious zealots. Religion, as it is practiced, never helps the cause of blacks, and Douglass mentions Mr. Rigby Hopkins, one of the sterling religious hypocrites, who derives sadistic pleasure in beating his slave on silly pretexts. Such religious leaders quote from the Bible selectively, and their assertions are out of the context. Douglass writes, â€Å"I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty. I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cow skin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture ? ‘He that knoweth his master’s will and doeth it, not shall be beaten wi th many stripes.’ † (Douglass 52). This is the highest form of insult to Christianity. Thus, in the mid-1800s, religion is used as the tool to destroy the emotional world of the slaves and break their psyche. Severe whipping is normal which often causes bodily harm to the slaves. Their working hours are long, from the sun-rise to the sun-set in the open farms, in all kinds of weather. With no educational facilities and no scope for personal empowerment possible for the slaves, the doors to the knowledge world remain shut for them from the cradle to the grave and from the womb to the tomb! In Douglass’ time, slavery is being practiced at its worst. The majority of the religious clusters in America barring the Society of Friends support slavery. That is the period when the North and South are vertically divided by the issue of slavery. The Christians of the North favor the abolition of slavery, but the Southerners are adamant about retaining it and thoroughly convi nced that it has the religious sanctity. The worst part is the condemnation and appreciation of slavery is done in the name of Christianity. So, the politics of religion dominates the issue of slavery. Douglass does not condemn Christianity as such, but his strong resentment is

Analytic Commentary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analytic Commentary - Essay Example This play shows his creativity as he remembers rules of road crossing as taught by his mother. But throughout the conversation, his focus on cat rescue remains his major objective. Theoretical background To a large extent, verbal communication especially pretence play and other forms of expression encompass a similar beginning (Loizou 2005). Although they constitute modes of communication, resultant meanings could be diverse but comprise of important aspects of important communication. The above case is an example of understanding language development in children undergoing the pre-operational stage. In Piaget’s cognitive development theory, early education that entails the use of the use of appropriate vocabulary to create sense constitutes a series of word plays which begin with nonsensical initiations. As evident from the play, some words Adrian uses in the play appear to be newly learnt and thus he struggles to create meaning with them. These words then form a foundation o f basic vocabulary that constitutes his ability to use appropriate words to create interpersonal communication skills. Since language is pivotal in a child’s communication, unique language behaviour from parents has varied influences on their children’s verbal skills (Brown, Donelan & Dunn 2009). Among them are variations in pronunciation. As evident from the play, Adrian struggles to get the word ‘ambu- lance’ right since his verbal communication skills are still youthful and dependent on parental influence. Accompanying such tonal variations include pitch variations. As Adrian struggles to get some words right, his pitch also changes staggeringly in attempts to get the right pronunciation. These, according to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, are normal occurrences in children at Adrian’s age. As the game progresses, Adrian’s cognitive skills can be seen as concrete. At his age, according to Piaget’s cognitive theory, chi ldren at the ages of four to five exhibit strong memories, mental clarities and use complex language to supplement their narratives (Terzi 2010). Throughout the play, Adrian does not falter to show drifting away from the play. He keeps within it and completes his mission as commenced. Although he involves many characters within it, he never loses track of his mission. This is an indication that children have adopted clear mental abilities and their cognitive abilities are able to store memories for a sustained period of time (Brown, Donelan & Dunn 2009). Parental role in supporting children is thinking. Uses of varying situations within pretence plays make the languages applied highly dynamic (Clough & Corbett 2000). Adrian’s parents use different situations which includes their demand to know where he is heading to, what is along the way and what else he can see as questioned in numbers, 4,7,10 and 12 which make language highly dynamic. Maintaining the same language for chil dren in Adrian’s age creates complexities for them. In order to create a lasting play and sustain the child’s interest in the play, the parent should involve lively language. Adrian in this case is given the same approach when his parents keep changing his language through choice of events and thus choice of words. The play becomes livelier from engagement of questions in the play all along while he keeps driving his parents and his cat to the hospital. The ability to improvement language communication in children especially as