Paul Laurence Dunbar wanted to "interpret my own people through song and story, and prove to the many that we are more human than African." In reading his "Sympathy", I didn't struggle as much with this poem as I did the others. "I know what the caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars". (Baym, 2013, pg 1809). The bird in the cage trying to break free, represented the black man trying to be free to enjoy their life just as the white man does.
Reading Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour", is set in a time when women were to bend their will to their husband. Once she hears of her husband's tragic accident, her mourning is what is expected. Then she comes to the realization that the death of her husband means her freedom. "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature." (Baym, 2013, pg 1610). She believes his death allows her to live life for herself. Unfortunately, her good fortune lasted for just an hour.
The next read, Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" was the first time that I have ever read a story that both amazed and moved me with its delivery. While reading, I felt the passion behind the speech and the belief in the extensive disparages between "Americans" and the slaves. Douglass writes "That which is inhuman cannot be divine," allowing the listeners in attendance to understand that their treatment of the slaves is neither Godly nor the treatment deserving of fellow men.