Are We Ever Free?

Dehumanization is a key theme throughout Fredrick Douglass’ life. What makes his story different is how he was able to reconstruct himself back into a functioning society. How does this happen? In “Narative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” by Fredrick Douglass he goes into depth about feelings and emotions he felt as both a slave and a “free” man. I do not believe that I could possibly go from being treated like filth to equal, in a sense, in a place with the people who formally oppressed me. It takes such patience and such will to not treat those who controlled, beat, and tortured you the same way once you have the opportunity. Fredrick’s story is one of the truly most amazing ones ever because he over cam adversity and suicidal thoughts and truly morphed from slave to a man. Once he was introduced to living in a society, he was still viewed as a black man.  The white owners who treated him lower than an animal went from oppressors to peers. Douglass spoke to his true feelings when he wrote, “The truth was, I felt myself a slave, and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me down” (98 Douglass). Further illustrating that his peers were still in power. He had to abide by the laws of living in a city where money was the way to living comfortably. He still had to gain employment and work grueling hours while still receiving less pay.

The Nazi’s played a similar role to the slave owners in World War II. A leader told them that the Jewish culture was ruining everyday life and that the Jews were to blame for all the hardships that have fallen upon the German people. In turn the Jews were treated like dirt, corralled and went from normal people in society to the ultimate enemy. There were various stages before the Jews ended up in the internment camps. There were made to wear Hebrew Star patches, live in the low income ghettos, and ultimately purged from the streets by German authority. Once in the interment camps, they were malnourished to the point of emaciation and treated like a common street rat. This was the ultimate dehumanization. Left in the cold to starve, freeze, and basically rot because one leader has turned you into an enemy. They were taken down to the level that Douglass described but were left stagnant sitting in these camps left to ultimately die. These people had survivors and like Fredrick had gone through the transformation from a man made a prisoner to a prisoner made a man. Once reintroduced back into the normal population, they still maintained the feeling of being less than the average citizen.

The hardest thing I feel that these two very different examples pose is their reintegration back into society. Going from these awful situations back to functioning day to day, as a free person must be so different. Living once again free with the people that dehumanized and degraded you as a person, who treated you like garbage because you were just another person that society deemed unsuitable to live free. These people will to move back into society while still being viewed as a lower class than people of their same stature. Will their opportunity allow them to achieve as much as the oppressors that held them back for so many years? It depends on what they opt to do and how they live their lives.

What causes these changes in society? How can people treat others like this? I believe in the case of slaves, that it was so engrained in society people did not believe that they were wrong.  They were brought up having slaves and figured why not own them myself. But with the oppression of the Jewish people there is no answer for that. They previously had a place in society right next to the German’s who now would not stand to let them live. It goes to show what society will do in times of serious trouble. They will look to one leader, such as Hitler, and follow his every whim to get them out of the place and time of hardship. Someone with authority and power over the people with a negative connotation is never a positive thing. These feelings did not leave that generation and people are still feeling the effects today. Discrimination is one of the biggest problems in modern society that is run by wealth and affluence. In Douglass’ case, he never received the opportunities that we are given in the present day, but those opportunities are in themselves not free. How does one truly feel free in a society that projects freedom but in a structured manor? I can not go and do whatever I want because there are laws that restrict me. So am I free? Well I am free to make my own choices but those choices must follow the laws of society.