"Incidents in the life of a slave Girl"

Incidents in a Life of a Slave girl” relates to ethos and pathos because of the pain she feels throughout the whole story. The story was written by a slave named Linda but the author is Harriet Jacobs. This means that blacks weren’t allowed to be heard during this period of time. Linda had to go through a lot as child and she had to go through even more as she got older.

This story appeals to be ethos to me because Linda has to deal with the death of her mother, father and her mother’s mistress. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have that many people die in my life. This is very emotional because I feel that she shared a special bond with each one of them. Losing a mother is never easy for anyone, no matter how tough you are. So I know that Linda had to feel some type of sadness knowing that she would never see her mother again. Losing a father isn’t easy either I don’t know much about their relationship but I know that it isn’t easy. I think the death of her mother’s mistress had the biggest affect on her, considering she was the one who taught her how to read. The lady was like a mother to her. After all this Linda is sent to live with a new master and mistress.

When the mistress dies Linda is sent to live with Dr. Flint. This man was very cruel in my option. He is the kind of person that when he wants something done, he expects for it to be done now. He also seems like the type of person who wants everything to be done his way (my way or no way). If his food wasn’t cooked the way it ought to be he would stuff it down her throat and make her eat it. That’s just trifling in my option. Anyone who could do something like has no respect for others what so ever. These people were cold and heart-less. They would lock Linda up for days at a time while her baby was left alone. He also tries to have sexual intercourse with her numerous of times. She finally gives into him and his mistress gets jealous. The mistress is really petty, she would punish Linda for the things that the master would do.

Linda lived through the hardest times living with Dr. Flint. She survived through the beatings, the rape, the mistreating, and the disrespect that she didn’t deserve.

Learning to read and Write

In “Learning to Read and Write” Fredrick Douglass has to go through a lot just to learn how to read. It seemed like he went on a rollercoaster ride to learn just one thing. Although in those times slaves weren’t supposed to be learning that, Fredrick felt the need to. His Mater and Mistress didn’t know what they wanted to do they kept changing their minds. I think that the Mistress wanted to teach him but the Master didn’t approve of it so that’s why she stopped. The master felt that Fredrick was learning too much for his own good, but I just think that maybe his master was afraid that one day Fredrick would use his knowledge against him. This whole story relates to pathos because it is true. You can feel the determination that Fredrick has. You can also tell that he puts a lot of effort in to doing it as well.

Fredrick Douglass described his Mistress as kind and tender-hearted. I wonder what happened to make her change her character. In the beginning she was very willing to help him but as the story goes on he would get in trouble if he even thought about picking up a book. So he would find other ways to learn. As a young slave his Mistress taught him the alphabet and as he got older he wanted to learn more. It was like his mind was craving knowledge so he took his learning elsewhere. He started to ask white boys in his neighborhood to teach him what they had learned in school.

After learning how to read Fredrick felt the need to learn how to write as well. So he began to trick the neighborhood kids by giving them things in exchange for their knowledge on how to write. I guess you can say that Fredrick was trying to hustle the poor young boys, but I don’t think he cared. Knowledge was what he wanted and knowledge is what he was going to get. Every chance he got, he was somewhere reading a newspaper or writing something.

In the end all of his hard work paid off. He is now famous for many things. This has taught me to never give up. This also taught me that if you want something then go for it. Fredrick Douglass never let anything hold him back from doing what he wanted to do and I respect him for that.

"The Story of An Hour"

In “The Story of An Hour” Kate Chopin writes about a woman who is happy about her husband’s death. Her sister and her husband’s friend break the news to her because of heart problem. I don’t think people understand why she is so happy to find out the news about her husband

When her sister tells her about her husband Mrs. Mallard goes to her room to be alone. I think she does this so that no one would see her reaction to this tragedy. She described her feelings about the situation as being free. She says that her mind and body are free. I think that she feels free because she can now live for herself, she doesn’t have to worry about anyone else. At first she is upset about the news but a feeling comes over her and she describes that feeling to be joy. As she sits in her room thinking about her freedom her sister worries about her. They think that she will make herself sick by staying in the room.

She finally comes out the room where her sister waits for her. Mrs. Mallard walks out of the room like a “Goddess of victory”. This meaning that she walked as if she has just won something. As her and her sister walk upstairs someone walks through the door to their surprise it was Mr. Mallard. Their friend Richard tries to cover him up so that Mrs. Mallard won’t be overwhelmed by the sight of her supposes to be dead husband. But it is too late. Mr. Mallard walks in to find his wife dead.

In the end the doctors say that she died from a disease of the joy that kills. Does this mean that she was so happy about the death of her husband that it killed her? Or does this mean that she was so happy that he walked through the door alive that it killed her? Either way I think that Mrs. Mallard’s sister and their friend killed her because they didn’t know all the fact of his death. They should have wait till they knew for sure.

"Aren't I a Woman"

Sojourner Truth is a Former slave who wrote the speech “Aren’t I a Woman”. In the speech written by Sojourner Truth she makes many errors but in the one written by Frances Gage is written with more understanding. This makes me wonder if Frances Gage wrote his version to help people in the present day better understand the speech or was it written to make Sojourner Truth’s version look uneducated. Both versions of the speech have power and express the words and feelings of an angry black woman.

In the version by Frances Gage uses a lot of punctuations such as questions marks and quotations. His version is more understandable than Truth’s. He explains everything that happens while she is saying the speech. There are actions and movements that she makes and Frances Gage writes down every move she makes. His version helps you to understand how they audience is reacting to her word and how it affects them. The speech talks about how the black women are treated. She starts off by coming at the white men saying how they might feel about men from the south and the women from the north talking about their rights. In the next part she begins to turn the attention not to jus white men but all men. She explains to her audience that she can do just as much as a man can, if not more. She has been through a lot including losing her children to slavery. Men don’t have to birth babies and watch them be snatched out of their hands seconds later.

In the next 2 parts of her speech she talks about religion. People say that women aren’t equal to men because Christ is not a woman. She explains to everyone that Christ was created by God and a Woman who is known as Mary. If it wasn’t for Mary, Christ would not exist. Women have contributed to the world and the religious world just as much as men have. She continues on to say that if one woman who is Eve could turn the world upside down then they could turn it right side up and make women’s rights equal to men’s.

At the end of Frances Gage’s version he described the people’s reactions to her words. Everyone seemed to understand how she was feeling and what she was trying to say. She spoke out for all women including herself and Aren’t she a woman for that.