Paper
Kelly Cullen
Introduction to Non-Fiction
Professor Meehan
February 22, 2012
Self Reflection:
I think that my ending paragraph is my strongest. I think I end with leaving the reader thinking more about freedom, and what exactly is complete freedom. For the improvement part, I feel I need to expand more on my thoughts but I have trouble with it.
What is Freedom?
When you hear the word freedom, so much comes to mind. Freedom is supposed to be accompanied with and bring along happiness. It is something we are all supposed to be “guaranteed” with but to some, it is denied. In his narrative To Tell A Free Story, William reasons that there is more than the apparent freedom, and that there is a more complex sense of freedom. We find this to be true through the life stories of authors and protagonists, Frederick Douglass in The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass and Tobias Wolff in This Boy’s Life. Both of these authors show us the complexity of freedom and what it means to be free.
Throughout This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff has a constant struggle with self-identity, self-important as well as his freedom. He continues to face barriers and obstacles hindering him from self-improvement. His lack of self-importance, leads him to believe that he is the reason for the life that has been dealt to him and his mother. Because of him, he has an absent father, because of him, his mother constantly finds herself in abusive and destructive relationships. This is clear when he writes “I was subject to fits of feeling myself unworthy, somehow deeply at fault. It didn’t take much to bring this sensation to life, along with the certainty that everybody but my mother saw through me and did not like what they saw”(11) At this point in his life, freedom isn’t even in the picture. He is focused on achieving identity. He is trying to find himself. Towards the end of the memoir, we see a change, we see a new Toby almost. He writes, “Then we sang the roof-raisers. We sang them with respect and we sang them hard, swaying from side to side and dipping our shoulders in counterpoint. Between hymns we drank from the bottle. Our voices were strong. It was a good night to sing and we sang for all we were worth, as if we’d been saved”(288). We asked ourselves, how is it possible for Toby, who once spoke so demeaning about himself and so pitiful, was now speaking so positively, so strongly. The link between his happiness and positive speaking is freedom. He is finally free of all the things that were holding him back earlier. He writes it was as if he was saved, which kind of emphases this sense of freedom, but this freedom that comes with complications. He doesn’t know what lies ahead, his future is unknown, but he is optimistic.
It ends in a very similar way for Frederick Douglass in The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass. His entire life, Douglass has lacked freedom. When looking at Douglass’ life from an outsiders view, it seemed as though Freedom wasn’t something that was virtually possible. He struggles with self-identity but as time goes on; Frederick Douglass slowly gains identity, ultimately leading him towards freedom. For example, he expresses “My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact”(290). We see that he was once someone with no sense of place, no feeling of importance, and more importantly freedom. His life was defined by slavery up until now. He strongly expresses that he might look like a slave on the outside, but on the inside, he was no longer one, he had finally escaped and gained his own identity, his own freedom.
In both memoirs, we see Frederick Douglass Tobias Wolff ultimately gain what they want, self- identity and more importantly freedom. However, it is clear to us that yes they have finally gained freedom, but they didn’t gain complete freedom.
They in fact just gained more freedom. Complete freedom knowing that they are promised living in simplicity; living within society with no restrictions this is obvious with how both memoirs end; complicated. Toby escapes Dwight while Douglass escapes slavery, but there is still more freedom for them to achieve.
I pledge my honor that I have completed this work in accordance with the Honor Code.
-Katherine Kelly Cullen
Works Cited:
- Andrews, L. William Classic American Autobiographies:The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Penguin Group USA New York 1992
- Wolff, Tobias This Boy’s Life; A Memoir. Grove Press; New York 1945
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