ath Douglass’s theme takes in both Narrative of the Life and My Bondage and My Freedom. Their greatest aspiration always seems out of reach, but the desire for freedom continues to burn inside them. Douglass enforces his point that even children hold the inherent craving for freedom. He describes his wildly free romps through nature as a small child, before his master called him to work in the fields. After hearing the news of his trade to Hugh Auld, Douglass rejoices at the smallest bit of extra freedom he receives. I left that plantation with inexpressible joy. I shall never forget the ecstasy with which I received the intelligence from my friend, Miss Lucretia, that my old master had determined to let me go to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld… (Autobiographies, 209). Douglass’s passage about how much freedom meant to him adds weight to the theme. Also, the unasked rhetorical question, “How much would you value freedom if you were a slave?” comes to mind when reading this passage and others which emphasize his intrinsic desire for freedom. This theme repeats itself so much throughout both novels, the reader must feel the value attached to freedom by all the slaves in the novel. The timelessness of the theme becomes apparent when viewing our society’s value of freedom today. The stormy period of adolescence holds the same goal as Douglass’s escape to the North; it determines the boundaries of our freedom, and where we choose to take our lives. The freedom of choice in the direction of our lives remains important to all Americans, and as long as freedom rings from America, Douglass’s books remain applicable in today’s society. The fight against slavery basically ended after the Civil War, but our need for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness continues to this day. Although slavery vanished in America, we still hold such desired freedoms freedom of religion and freedom to v...
