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Love to Defeat Violence
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Love to Defeat Violence
Leo Tolstoy talks of how important the concept of love is among individuals and groups of people. He states that if love exists, there will not be anyone to hold captive human beings. He discusses how science and religion have held captive humanity in so many different ways and how this can be ended. First, he discusses religion and focuses on Christianity, how it has made human beings captives and how wrong this has been all through. After Christianity, he also discusses science and how even those nations like china and japan, which Christianity did not torment, are now being tormented by science as they see science as the whole truth of everything needed for people to believe and live. These are very important concepts as the world evolves from religion into science. However, amid all these issues, he firmly states that love still holds and will continue to hold up to the end as the most important virtue of humanity. Therefore, his paper discusses and analyses the writing by Leo Tolstoy and its meaning to humanity in the contemporary world.
Tolstoy states that religion and science cause violence. Religion in the first place is the major cause of violence when looked at from the eyes of history. For example, Christianity and Muslim had one of history’s most renowned chaos and fought called the crusades. It is a clear indication of what Tolstoy says is the nature of religion. Even though love does away with all kinds of human suffering and difficulties, it is also true that it has been corrupted over time. It is visible in the Christian realm whereby loving oneself is even more important in some instances than loving others. For example, when Christians state that a righteous person should not move in the paths of the evildoers, that means it is love but love for the righteous, which means putting away some people like the wrongdoers who ought to be corrected with love.
Even though Christianity and other types of religion advocate for the love and the presence of God in people’s lives, there was still a lacking part as time grew and the people continued to live in these religions. For instance, they believe that power comes from God, and therefore it was important for a person to fully submit to the power which rules them because it is from God grew to be misused by many people with time. Therefore this belief watered down. The leaders most of the time used those under them, and therefore, this was a type of violence.
On the other hand, science is also a very big power that is the basis of violence in the contemporary world. Unlike religion, which was just used to lure some people, science has been embraced by everyone, which puts the world at risk. The risk comes out because apart from the world being subject to science, science can also make destructive products which can be used to cause violence to a very great deal and therefore this has to be dealt with in the right manner.
In conclusion, Tolstoy states that non-violence is the best thing to approach violence in any part of the world. This is because love crowns it all, and it makes things better as violence only hurts people. He states that science and religion cannot lure a person who is deep-rooted in the virtue of love to do anything wrong or anything which is not per the principles of love.
Work Cited
Bajaj, Ritu. “A Letter to a Hindu—Essay of Leo Tolstoy.” Contemporary Literary Review India 2.1 (2018): 25-27.
Life of Frederick Douglass analysis
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Life of Frederick Douglass analysis
Frederick Douglass explains how his life was like in a slavery setting, which forms most of his morals and what kind of person he becomes at the end of the day. He is very observant, self-confident and makes sure that whatever he does, he does it with all his determination. All this is displayed in his book titled “narrative of Frederick Douglass’s life, an American slave”, which he wrote. He is the person who wrote this book also gives us a profound insight into the happenings of his life and what it means to be free, and what it means to be held up in slavery for long as he was.
It talks of the real experiences and struggles in an American slavery system and tries to explain how he could get out of this system at the end of the day. Even though there are many struggles, especially for the black slaves who were not just used as sex objects, the white slave owners also had sex with them to ensure that the number of slaves remained high. Therefore this paper discusses difficult times and experiences faced by the black slaves in the hands of their white owners and how this translates into the understanding of the whites and contemporary society in the face of the past and hope of a better future.
Religion comes up as a different theme that acts to diminish the efforts and the will of the slaves to be better. Therefore, in this context, we can say that religion has been used in the wrong manner to destroy the meaning of life to the slaves. This is by being selective on what matters to them and making sure that they do not view religion as a set of principles and rules that favor them but rather as a set of rules set by the creator that they should suffer and never have a good life. This is one of the greatest deceptions used by the white slave owners, and it holds grounds in different places and among different people in the united states of America at different times of the slavery period (Douglass, 47). Here Douglass talks of how his master changes into even a more cruel person upon his conversion and learning of a new religion. Therefore instead of using what he was using before to lead and command the slaves, he now gets another authority to treat them in a bad manner.
Captain Anthony and Colonel Lloyd own Douglass. He survives in difficult situations and with little amounts of food. His experience is a very difficult and traumatic one as well. Apart from the normal life of hardship he is used to, he gets to experience the beatings and the murder of a slave, which goes on silently and is never recognized by most people (Douglass, 21). This death was one of the cruelest and for the smallest mistakes performed by a girl looking after a child. The girl had not got sleep for the previous nights and was given the duty to look after the kid. As she looked after the kid, she slept, and the baby cried. Upon hearing her cry, the servant’s owners, who were the wife to Mr. Giles Hicks, go to check and, finding the baby slave asleep, go ahead to beat her and struggles her to death at the end of it all. This is not only cruel but also inhumane.
Douglass tries to inform our society how allegiances to the slave master were more important than consideration of a fellow slave through his work. This was difficult for the slaves, and therefore they had to sacrifice a lot of things that they valued for the sake of choosing life and not death. Due to fear of death and the fear of the master of a slave, there was a development of a new wave of a false system of beliefs. This was whereby the slaves only wanted to please the master in anything they did, and this happened not because they willed so but because there was a lot of pressure and death risk to do so.
However, even though Douglass knew how bad it was for him to risk some things, he still risked being taught how to read and write by Mrs. Auld (Douglass, 47). This was happening when Mr auld was not around the home because they knew that risking to that extent of being taught when he was there could have brought his life to an end. Therefore they had to live like they both did not know each other when Mr. Auld was around in the house. Even though this looks strange, it was the nature of the lives of the slaves, and it meant a lot to survive than to find good life for oneself. Therefore here, Douglass survived and had an added advantage which is rare for slaves to get. That is a home or a family that likes a slave not for what he does for them but likes him or her as a normal human being who deserves love and respect as they got it from everyone else around them. (Preston, xvii)
Freedom sounds very sweet for slaves, and therefore this is what Douglass tries to get every time he gets a small chance of being free. When he is taken to live with William Freeland, he finds himself as a Sunday school teacher, and in this position, he was the happiest since it was the only good position he had ever had since the time he became a slave (Douglass, 71). Even though he does a lot of work for the people and the community around him, at the end of it all, he realizes that he is almost free and tries to escape (Douglass, 74). In here, he also shows his intelligence by cheating and writing in the writing of his master and the masters of his fellow friends they were escaping with that they had given them the freedom to go to Baltimore and spend the holidays there. With all these efforts to be free, he is not successful, and he is caught at the end of it all, whereby he is taken back to Baltimore, where he finds himself working again (Martin, 131). This is a portrayal of how freedom is expensive and almost impossible to get for the black slaves when he lived.
At Baltimore, he is given the responsibility of running errands for shipyard workers. Here he fits in well; however, he experiences challenges when some of the workers heckle and strike at him, then he fights back. With him fighting back, he is almost beaten to death, and this makes him afraid. This displays a situation whereby it does not matter if people are of the same color. What matters is if a person tries to destroy the peace or add to a person’s stress, then they are dealt with most cruelly as a manner of anger displacement, as seen in this situation(Douglass, 81).
Douglass continues working and talks with Mrs auld about the possibility of hiring himself out. Even though this seems difficult, he still proceeds with it, and at the end of it, he hires himself out as a free person. He moves to Massachusetts, and he settles there with his wife, Anna Murray. At this place, he does odd jobs to earn his living even though this is not satisfactory. Therefore, when he hears of an anti-slavery convention, he gets interested in joining, and it is through this, he gets into his next career as a slavery abolitionist (Douglass, 437).
From his life, we can see and learn many things that help us focus our minds on the role of slavery in the formation of the current American society. The question here is; if the majority of the black people in the united states had to go through such difficult experiences to experience their freedom and rights, then should that mentality of racism still exist? How should we live in a society whereby every person is seen as equal and as human beings and not as people to be used to benefit others?
Therefore, in conclusion, we can say that going back to Douglass’s life, the answers to these questions are depicted. Through his story, we realize that human life is sacred and important and that we are all human beings with no one superior to the other. Therefore we ought to find balance in society and live better lives than living the lives of looking down upon some people or living a fake life of trying to be better than others by oppressing those under us either physically, economically, and academically.
Works cited
Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Modern Library Classics, 2000.
Douglass, Frederick. The life and times of Frederick Douglass: From 1817-1882. Christian Age Office, 1882.
Martin Jr, Waldo E. The Mind of Frederick Douglass. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Preston, Dickson J. Young Frederick Douglass. JHU Press, 2018.
Jacobs and Douglass
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Jacobs and Douglass
Slave abolitionists that are Jacobs and Douglass had a great influence and were seen as very instrumental being when it came to the issue of the presence of slavery still at the time they gained their freedom and therefore they had to work towards ending their slavery practices as it treated black women and men not as human beings but rather as people who were just to be used and be looked down upon. They were to be used for their material gain and benefit which they could bring to the members present in the white elite and those who belonged to them they were therefore supposed to report to them.
The two individuals were very instrumental in their manner of operation and especially through the different ways through which they were able to portray the kinds of lives the individuals lived and therefore through this the generalization of the lives of the slaves could be made and therefore it is true that the slaves had a difficult time and were not easy to get their basic needs as they were never considered as human beings. Therefore in here, this paper discusses the discussions about the issue of racial discrimination and what their stories try to tell us concerning Africa and also considered in their particular countries (Douglass, & Jacobs, 2000).
Therefore their stories even though somehow difficult and unable to understand as a general conclusion as to how the slaves were treated and how they had a difficult time were very difficult and it makes most people unable to fully understand how such evil could happen to these people. their stories highlight important events which happened to them which to a large degree and extent changed a lot about their lives and what they trusted as well as what they believed in.
The story of the life of Douglass was a very influential one as it tells of his life from the time he becomes a slave when he is a very young kid. He also tells of how his life was difficult as there were a lot of movements as they came to America and not only this bust also as the different slaves and here with a more focus on him were transferred from one farm or one master to another. This selling of slaves he emphasizes is very important. We can look at this from his eyes and therefore looking at the events he was able to learn that everything happens for a reason. He also stresses the issue of God and how it was only through God that he was able to be saved and therefore able to live a better life. This allusion to the issues which a person experience is always very important. Therefore this story talks of how a black man is unable to get a job even after releasing himself somehow from slavery and this hurt him. this happens when he is beaten because the whites thought that it was all in vain to continue working at the place he was working. After all, also even if he worked all the money and the benefits were going to his master. (Douglass, & Jacobs, 2000).
Therefore his story is a comprehensive point of view from himself about the nature of the theological points of view when it comes to slavery and many other factors which were never considered as important. He states in his autobiography that the religion which was being used by the slaver maters only was meant for the benefit of the masters and the other leaders by making the qualifications and the other activities which related to being a good or a bad slave as well as what was not important in the whole process. Another important aspect of the bibliography is the continual mention and existence of insults and physical violence towards the black people as a way of treatment which is very bad and unfamiliar with common humanity and the way human beings are treated. This, therefore, is an autobiography that concerns the person’s journey and in this case, the person is Douglass. It talks of his journey and how he has been developing at almost every stage in which he appears within the writing. Therefore these are important and good however it does not always refer to the different ways in which individuals evaluate and view slavery.
Harriet Jacobs was also a writer and an abolitionist whose main ideas and interests especially were focused and based on her sexual way of life. This can allude to the fact that she was sexually abused when she was barely a teenager and this affected her for the rest of her life. Therefore this is a very important bibliography and it talks of the different aspects and behaviors of slave masters. The slave masters are seen to satisfy their sexual desires and needs using Jacobs and this tells of how these are supposed to be understood.
Therefore this work has always been good and important to find and discuss issues that affect a person’s social and general life from Jacobs’s struggles and discussions as a lady. This makes a space for these kinds of issues which is always artistic and it makes it possible for the person to be able to do what they want with a genuine heart and confirmation that it is of great significance to be considered. Therefore the wiring of this ends up in making a person a very good to prepare for planning the next way of wiring or express. This story therefore of a very great significance and therefore it is easy for purposes (Yellin, 1981)..
These two works are also related in a very great manner. This comes out as a way in which these different aspects of the slavery period, environments, and how the individuals were treated by the whites brought in issues to do with sometimes lack of self-esteem or another factor which if experienced help one to understand how everything goes in their stories are similar and how they are also not complex. Therefore even though these two biographies are related they are also different in several ways. The story of Jacobs is a story of a lot of pain and this tells us of how she refused to fall into that problematic situations and how these can be used and harnessed as a way of making sure that the girls in the current times understand how it is difficult to be a slave girl (Yellin, 1981).
In conclusion, therefore, in the biography of Douglass who is a slave abolitionist we can learn that he is at peace that he came out at the end of the day. Therefore this helps us understand how important some things are in the face of understanding the different types of history as well as the different qualities which people will be able to understand what it means to be in such kind of situation.
References
Douglass, F., & Jacobs, H. (2000). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Modern Library Classics.Yellin, J. F. (1981). Written by Herself: Harriet Jacobs’ Slave Narrative. American Literature, 53(3), 479-486.