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What conflicts are evident in Mrs. Auld's changing behavior toward Douglass in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass?
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Mrs. Auld's changing behavior toward Douglass highlights the conflict between her initial benevolent nature and the oppressive slave-owning culture. Initially kind and compassionate, she begins to teach Douglass to read, which conflicts with societal norms. Her husband’s rebuke leads her to adopt the cruel attitudes expected of a slave owner. This transformation illustrates how slavery corrupts her humanity, emphasizing the deep societal divide between slave owners and slaves.
The primary conflict Mrs. Auld encounters after becoming a slave owner concerns her perception and treatment of humanity and her ability to subscribe to the oppressive slave-owning culture and laws. Frederick Douglass initially perceives Mrs. Auld as a pleasant, benevolent woman, who attempts to teach him how to read and treats him with kindness and compassion. Frederick likens Mrs. Auld to a gentle angel, who is the nicest white person he's ever met before. After Mrs. Auld’s husband severely chastises her for teaching Frederick how to read and write, her personality dramatically begins to change for the worse. As time passes, Mrs. Auld transforms into a heartless, callous woman, who views Frederick with contempt and treats him like a worthless possession. Frederick Douglass writes,
Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no...
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sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness. (50)
Mrs. Auld's position as a slave-owner negatively affects her perception and treatment of humanity. She no longer views Frederick as a human and believes that he is a possession. Mrs. Auld subscribes to the prejudiced, cruel laws of the slave-owning culture and vehemently prevents Frederick from becoming literate. Mrs. Auld proceeds to lose all of her compassion and transforms into a violent, menacing woman. Overall, Mrs. Auld’s former perception of humanity and gentle nature conflict with slave-owning culture.
In my mind, the number one element that is brought out through Sophia Auld's character is the reality the society of the slaveowner is constructed to be diametrically opposed to the slave's. When Sophia teaches Douglass how to read and write, it forces a contradiction between the social orders. A slaveowner, or white society, is not meant to do anything to benefit or empower the slaves, black society. In this construction, conflict presents itself when Sophia teaches Douglass how to read and write because such a trait empowers slaves to break free from their slaveowners, causing challenge to white society who benefits from the imbalance of social and political power. Sophia's action earns rebuke from her husband, and her kindness turns into cruelty, demonstrating that the social and political division is intensely ingrained. This helps to bring out that it will take a great deal of commitment from individuals to change such a social and political order, something to which Douglass devoted his life after achieving his freedom.