Dehumanization in Frederick Douglass Narrative

The act of dehumanization was some time back normalized by superior communities who exercised the superiority of less developed societies by taking them as slaves (Jacobs and Douglass 56). One famous author by the name Frederick Douglass used dehumanization as one of his themes in a story. The paper looks at some of the examples of dehumanization in the story. In his story, Frederick uses slavery to the expose to inhuman experience the slaves were put through by their owners. Any reader would find it hard to understand how it was that at one point in time people could treat their fellow humans like how the slave owners treated their subjects. He never had the chance to know his birth father but kept thinking that even if he knew him, he probably could have still gone through the same harsh treatment.

Still, on the same issue, the author gives another example of how his grandmother was subjected to inhuman treatment despite her old age. The author had no close relationship with family as he separated from his mother at birth. However, he was lucky to meet his grandmother. He uses a very personal example of what could have happened to any person taken to be of less importance in the society. He suffered all these before growing up and getting the courage to step up and succeed in asserting his manhood. He finally managed to resist his oppressor and found a taste of freedom (Jacobs and Douglass 81). The author how his master's authority deprived him of the right to use his intellect and body to his own benefit, he was owned.

The author lost hope, he was never happy, and this made him lose touch with his personality and individuality. The author then apart from expressing and narrating what he went through as a person, he also uses the example of other slaves and how the subjected to inhuman treatment. The blacks were only considered suitable for slave activities. The masters had no remorse even for the young ones, Frederick explains that were provided with poor quality food which he described as coarse cornmeal. The food was referred to as mush, despite their young age, it was survival of the fittest and the fastest. When it was meal time, they were ‘summoned as pigs’ and ‘as pigs, the children rushed and devoured the undercooked meal that was set down upon the ground’ (Jacobs and Douglass 71).

The ones that were faster got the most and the strong ones secured the best places and left the meal place satisfied and ready for work. This was an example of dehumanization. The best example of dehumanization is when Frederick describes what took place in jail after his plan for escape failed. Douglas says that he and some of his friend had been jailed for at least twenty minutes when a number of other slaves and their representatives arrived to see if they were for sale. The slave traders taunted and examined Frederick and the other slaves as a way to ascertain their value (Jacobs and Douglass 111). The author here portrays the slave business men as people auctioning for animals and not human beings.