Frederick Douglass Paper

In it's early years, America enforced slavery particularly in the southern states. Many slaves spent there entire lives working hard labor for no pay. Others, such as Frederick Douglass managed to break away. In his autobiography "The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass", he examines the evils of slavery mainly their affect on people. He states that slavery affected everyone including slaves, slave masters, and people who weren't even involved in slavery.

One negative effect of slavery is that it changes people. When Douglass was young he was being educated by his mistress. Whenever he wasn't working in the fields he was learning how to read and write. Soon after her husband found out, she stopped and suddenly grew bitter and cynical towards Douglass. She had gone from a caring woman to a mean, bitter woman.

Slavery also had a psychological effect. When reading on the History of America, he discovered that the nation that promoted slavery once fought a war based on individual freedom. This made him angry towards his slave owners and toward the country to which he lived in. There were other times where Douglass was suicidal and thought he would never get out. Slavery had driven him to insanity and hatred.

Conflict was also created by slavery. Abolisionists in the North sought to end slavery. However, the South resisted and often riots would break out. Douglass, an abolisionist himself believed that if something would not be done soon, an even bigger conflict would break out. People who were fighting against slavery were in danger due to the unpopularity of what they were attempting. Slave owners saw abolisionists as terrorists due to the belief that what they were doing was right.

Overall as Douglass would explain, slavery was the one true evil in that it changed people, affected them psychologically, and created conflict.

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Research has shown that those who fail to achieve an education usually devolve into a life of crime and immorality. Hsun Tzu was an ancient chinese philosopher and disciple of Confucius. A strong believer in education, Hsun Tzu uses metaphors and natural images to make his argument that through rigorous training and study man can overcome his inherent evil and become a gentlemen. An example of his beliefs is in his writing entitled “Encouraging Learning”. Here are some examples from the text, itself.
An example of a metaphor used by Hsun Tzu is a piece of wood. The piece of wood as straight as a plumb line may be bent into a circle as round as a compass. Once this has happened it may never be straighten again as the bending process has made it that way; this in such to the education of a young man. Once the man is educated he cannot be “uneducated” and thus has achieved knowledge. Another metaphor would be a piece of metal. If metal is placed against the grindstone it can be sharpen, just as if the gentlemen studies wisely and each day examines himself, his wisdom will become clear and his conduct will be without fault.
An example of natural images would be ice and water. When froozen water becomes ice and thus ice is more frozen than water. The same logic can apply to a gentlemen and child. The child, with an education can grow to be a gentlemen and thus the gentlemen is more knowledgeable than the child just as the ice is cooler than the water. One other comparison can be made to a crab. A crab has six legs and two pincers, but unless they can find an empty hole dug by a snake or a water serpent, they have no place to lodge just as if the human doesn’t have the proper education, they tend to not be able to find a place of their own in the world and usually devolve into a “lesser quality” of life in order to try and achieve what they want.
As a piece of wood can be bent, a piece of metal can be sharpen, water becomes ice, and a crab finds its place, a human with an education can be successful, knowledgeable, and live a proper life. Through his uses of metaphors and natural images such as the ones above, Hsun Tzu is able to get his point across that through rigorous training and study man can overcome his inherent evil to become a lively and successful gentlemen. The studies have shown that without such an education must humans have no direction in life and nowhere to go and thus are usually forced…by their own will…to devolve into crime and immorality. However, they can avoid this through a proper education and support.

Hsun Tzu Essay

Hsun Tzu was a Chinese philosopher and disciple of Confucius. When Confucius died, his followers split into two groups. One such group believed that the rites that Confucius advocated could produce virtue and rectitude because humans possessed these qualities. However, the 2nd group, to which Hsun Tzu was a part of, believed that the Confucius program of rites and observances were necessary because humans were inherently evil. Overall, I agree with what Hsun Tzu is saying.

With a strong belief in education, Hsun Tzu believed that only by rigorous training and devoted study could change human nature. Most people enter the world with the belief of only themselves and thus need education to learn more of life. Without such education, the human being does not know what it needs to know in order to go through life properly. The human only knows itself and cares for itself the most. Through education they can learn unselfishness and discipline among other things.

Hsun Tzu saw the education of a child in the same manner as sharpening a piece of wood or sharpening a piece of metal with a stone. If such was done correctly, the piece of wood would become straight and the metal to be sharp just as the child would become a gentlemen. However, if such goes wrong the wood is rendered useless, the metal is dull, and the child faces a long, vigorous task ahead of trying to get through life without the benefit of a proper education. To get his point across, Hsun Tzu published various essays.

One such essay states that learning should never cease. The meaning of the such statement is that you’re never too young to learn nor are you too old. Learning begins at birth and doesn’t stop until your final day. No one ever fulfills complete knowledge of the world, but they attempt to learn whatever they can to get through life with knowledge and dignity.

Overall, without and education and life training, a child cannot succeed in the world in the best way possible. While they do learn throughout their entire life, they may not exactly “learn” in the most.