Pedagogy of the Oppressed Analysis
Words Hurt. In the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire, Freire provides an in depth analysis and definition of oppression. Many believe that the oppressed are the only ones on the receiving end of damage but in dehumanizing others, the oppressor is also subject to damage. Dehumanization “marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it” (1). Examples of this “two-way street” are found in Jacobs and Fredericks recount of their period of enslavement, Flannery O’Conner’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Oppression physically and psychologically affects the ones who are subject to this kind of pain, gives the oppressor power and privilege, and dehumanizes both the oppressor and the oppressed through internalization and prescription. Freire, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, and O’Conner’s works demonstrated clearly how oppressors, through prescription, internalization, and dehumanization to take the privileges and power that they (the oppressors) want. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs vividly describes the dehumanization, humiliation, and abuse that the enslaved faced. Today, we cannot even think of any sort of abuse tantamount to what Jacobs’ experienced. Jacobs’ words spoke of how her owner, through dehumanization, caused prescription: “He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things.” Prescription is the imposing of “one’s individual choice upon another” (3). Jacobs tells her audience of how her owner sees her as an object and not a human being. She is given no choice in the matter. He is saying that Jacobs is his property and that she should just quietly obey that orders given to her. Here, the owner has power over her life and all that she does. Douglass writes about how his mistress’s mentality has made a 360° turn: “Under its influence, tender heart