Four Interpretations of Freedom

“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.”-Douglass

Frederick Douglas believes his own freedom cannot be attained if he does not fight back. Accepting your fate keeps your mind forever enslaved and trapped from reaching freedom. Freedom has to do with "slave in fact or slave in form". Douglas fights back and does this by appearing to be an obedient slave, or keeping up appearances. By pretending to be an obedient slave, content with his life he doesn't arouse suspicion. Underneath it all he does not willingly serve. This is shown by Douglas learning how to read even though it is forbidden and standing up to Mr. Covey when he attempts to whip him. Even after Douglas is a "freed" slave, he is not actually "free" until he finally is his own master. When he is paid for his own work for the first time he is truly "free". He no longer has to give money for his hard work to his master. He no longer has to pretend to be content with answering to someone and denying himself personal freedom. He is now no longer a slave in form, or in fact.

We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.-Emerson

I feel like this quote was a main point in “The American Scholar”. The best way to learn is to have our own experiences. Experience is the best teacher. Creating new ideas and thinking in new ways will allow us to express ourselves freely. Authenticity is important in becoming a “man thinking”, someone who teaches themselves how to live and applies knowledge from books, academics, and experience to to their own life. To be free yourself, you must be free of the past, and free of society's limitations. The pathway to freedom is to pave your own way and think for yourself, rather than relying on ancient teachings.

I resist anything better than my own diversity,
And breathe the air and leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.- Whitman

This quote defines the freedom of man and of labels that Whitman really believed in. Whitman celebrated the ordinary and believed the common man with a common occupation was not just defined by that. He believes that all people are one and the same and must be accepting of one another. Because he is not stuck up and does not judge people by their class or occupation, he is in his place- meaning he is free of society's constraints that damage and label the common man, putting them into categories and desensitizing them, trying to make them all the same. Whitman believes in celebrating diversity because what makes a person unique should be advertised and not hidden. Celebrating and honoring the common man makes a person free. Labels classify people unfairly and enslave the everyday man. We are much more than labels and to become free, we must fight the label we are given

“They shut me up in prose”-Emily Dickinson

In Dickinson's eyes, writing poetry was the only way for her to be free. 19^th century society labeled women as just a domestic housewife or an angel of the house. She was expected to make the home warm and inviting for everybody else except for herself. She was trapped in her own home and trapped by what society expected her to be. She was imprisoned by 19th century conventions and compared herself to a bird who longs to fly away when it is trapped. She is being held captive because she is a woman and her only outlet is to write, maybe to write to all of the other women in her same position. This poem explains why she is not free. But by explaining what traps her and expressing what she really feels in poetry, she actually becomes free.