Maya Angelou, Fredrick Douglass Standing Against Racism & Slavery

Maya Angelou, Fredrick Douglass and Others Standing Against Racism and Slavery
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Maya Angelou, Fredrick Douglass and Others Standing Against Racism and Slavery
Maya Angelou's poem ‘The Guilt’ is a rhetorical stance on “chained slavery” and the cost of her survival as African, which includes slaughter, slavery, and lynching (Angelou, 2017). In a neutral tone, she expresses her remorse with utmost reverence for the sacrifices of her generations in the name of independence, social justice, and equality in the civil rights movement. She uses a direct, conversational style to share the plight of the black race protesting against racism and the memories of their sacrifices, disturbing her mind. This nostalgic reverence for the ‘heroes, dead and gone’ constitute her guilt for not standing for the cause like others who cared for nothing but the future of the black race and better opportunities at the cost of their lives (Angelou, 2017). Her comparison of past legends with them who took a stand to survive the black race intensifies her sense of ‘crime’ converting it into ‘sin’ (Angelou, 2017). Her purpose is to inspire every black of the contemporary era to ‘scream aloud’ about the ceaseless struggle of their heroes to let the world not forget the cost of their freedom.
The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, consisting of several chapters, is his first-person narrative to describe the nightmarish life of slavery he was born in and how he escaped. Douglass was a few fortunate black slaves who bought freedom, not for their life but their boldness in an extremely critical situation for the black race. He became a well-known icon of the abolitionist movement by taking part in it as an orator and news publisher (Douglass, 1851). His straight forward and engaged tone sometimes becomes ironic and emotional. Meanwhile, he also takes philosophical and political position to take his reader into the horrible world of slavery and causes of escape. By rhetorical appeals like logos, ethos, and pathos, he took a convincing stance on northern America’s white men (Douglass, 1851). Although his purpose in the prose is transparent of pointing out the wrongs of slavery and motivations behind the abolitionist movement, there is another purpose of his writing highlighted by a few critics. This purpose is to prove his autobiography right that he was once a slave because many critics deny that historical references to his being a slave are based on reality.
In my opinion, both pieces o...