It's a Shame...

After 20 minutes of further reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, I've come to understand that perhaps it can be slightly annoying when an author plays so much with the audience's emotions. That's not to say, though, that there aren't moments where the sentiment that the narrative provides isn't gruelling and overwhelming, but in my opinion, there is simply too much of an attempt at pathos for it to have a real impact on me.

By now, you'll probably be thinking what a cold-hearted person I am; but, I would like you to understand that I sympathize Frederick Douglass greatly, and I don't criticize anything but the method he chose to write this book. If you look back at my first blog post on this matter, you'll notice how captivated I was by the emotional content that dwelled in the pages. Now I find myself tired of the constant reminder of how difficult times were, and how terribly people behaved. These aspects are especially evident when Douglass explains how he "left [the plantation] with joy" (p. 40), and how he "could not feel that [he] was leaving any thing which [he] could have enjoyed by staying" (p. 41). It's a shame, really, that Douglass has to keep drowning the reader with emotions that try to persuade us into absolutely loving this book, because it's really done quite the opposite. The story of this man's past is tremendous, a sublime showcase of the apprehension that slaves had to endure. The execution? It was great... for three or four chapters, maybe.

I'd love to be able to say how great the book really is, but: first, I haven't finished it, so I can't come to that conclusion yet; second, there are aspects that simply beguile the reader (me, at least), but some that quite honestly make the telling of the story overemphasized. Again, I empathize Douglass and the hardships he had to go through, but I can't praise the book as a work of art because, for me, it simply isn't.