Seeing in the Dark

Much like the prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, born into the darkness and shadows and never knowing that any alternative existed, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1817. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the shackles that kept him enslaved, seeing only the shadows of existence, were those of un-education. Douglass was still a child when his master’s wife, Mrs. Auld, began to teach him the alphabet and a few three and four letter words (Douglass 160). At this point in time Douglass’ chains were loosened and like the person who has been chained in darkness for a lifetime is naturally inclined to do, he began to “turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light” (Plato 451). This was the first step in Douglass’ transformation. He had a hunger for knowledge and knew he could no longer be content living in dark ignorance when the light of education was available to him.
He had barely been given a glimpse of the light when Mr. Auld put a stop to this “unlawful [and] unsafe” (Douglass 160) education. He explained to his wife the danger in instructing a slave to read and told her that it would “do him no good but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy” (Douglass 161). Douglass began to think about Mr. Auld’s words and wondered if he could ignore the light he had been shown and go back to the life of darkness that he had always known. Not unlike the prisoner in the cave who, when first confronted with the truth of his existence, by being able to turn his head and see where the light of his world came from and that the images on the wall that he had always imagined were reality were merely shadows of reality. He must also make the choice at this juncture whether to stay in the familiarity and comfort of the darkness or whether to continue toward the light, regardless of the unknowns and the fears that lay ahead (Plato 451).
Douglass now understood the pathway from slavery to freedom (Douglass 160). Although his master’s wife was now forbidden from teaching him anything, he could see the sunlight peeking through in the distance and set his sights on learning how to read at whatever cost of trouble (Douglass 161). During the next seven years Douglass succeeded in learning to read and write through many creative means. He continued his “steep and rugged ascent” by educating himself and reading anything he could get his hands on (Plato 451). As he read “The Columbian Orator” the light ahead grew closer, and the brightness of it began to pain his eyes, and “behold! That very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow [his] learning to read had already come, to torment and sting [his] soul to unutterable anguish” (Douglass 164). His enlightenment regarding the depravity of his existence and the cruelty of his masters was much like the pain that the prisoner released from the cave experienced upon reaching the opening of the cave. At times Douglass felt that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given [him] a view of [his] wretched condition, without the remedy” (Douglass 164). For a few moments he even envied the ignorance of the slaves around him who continued to live in the darkness, unaware of what they were missing.
Upon Douglass’ painful emergence into the sunlight, he felt anger and frustration bubbling beneath the surface and he began to feel that death must be preferable to this existence, as the prisoner trying to take in and comprehend all he was seeing around him in the sunlight for the first time must distress about the reality of nature and the illusion of the existence he had once believed so wholeheartedly. For now there was no chance to turn back. One could not return to the darkness and ignore those things he had seen on the surface, nor could he imagine remaining in this painful, bright, uncomfortable and unfamiliar surrounding. Douglass was now lost, and held only to the hope of freedom. As his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he began to reason about the world and the people around him and he no longer wished to undo what he had done to himself. Instead, he wished for freedom and began to strive for it, his soul “ever hastening into the upper world where [he] desire[d] to dwell” (Plato 453). However, he knew this was not the opportune time and that he must return to the darkness and “descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not” (Plato 456). Douglass resolved to run away when a favorable opportunity arose, and although it pained him nearly as much to go back into the darkness as it had for him to come into the light in the first place, his hope and determination pushed him forward until the day came when he was able to fully realize and embrace the sunlight and the world of freedom above him.