I always thought of the phrase “divide and conquer” as a fun strategy that my family and I would use. It was a plan for max efficiency, shared responsibility, and maybe even friendly competition when we were trying to make a pit stop at the grocery store as speedy as possible. I never thought of it as a form of mass segregation and debilitation.

In reading Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born A Crime, the narrative seriously caused me to rethink, not only the simple phrase, but also the privilege I had in my ignorance to how a declaration could hold so much power. In South Africa, there was a law called the Immorality Act, which banned the interracial relationships and intercourse; at this very notion, Noah’s birth was very much a crime.

In conjunction of the Immorality Act, laws were in place to segregate the diverse communities of South Africa. The most notable cultures present in Noah’s narrative are the Xhosa, which his mother is, the Zulu, and the whites. The white government took advantage of South Africa’s majority black population, dividing the races from each other, and allowing the division to cause enough conflict that, with monitoring, they would eventually destroy each other.

Noah’s mother was smarter than that, however. She knew that the power that whites had over her would only last if she allowed herself to be divided. Patricia found value in language, the technology that served to connect and separate the different black communities. Just as Douglas states in his narrative, knowledge is one of the most powerful tools to have, and everyone has the right to learn.

The two, bright men, both recognize the power of language, and how, if used correctly, it can alter other’s understanding and perception. In Noah writing his memoir and Douglas writing his narrative, the stories shared continue to bridge the gap of knowledge and ignorance that people have on subjects, and that is the greatest thing they can do with the power and platform that they worked for and earned.

Knowledge is power, and power changes our perception of everything. Douglass was wise beyond his peers or common slaves, as he took advantage of his relationships to learn how to read and write through the mentorship of his mistress and white youths. But, to his misfortune, knowing can cause more pain than peace.

As stated, there are various ways of understanding an experience, and it is all at the hand of the lens a situation is viewed from. Reading Douglass’s narrative, you gain a very unique view of a slave is yet a slave and someone who gained more educational experiences. Unlike many slaves of his time, Douglass understood slavery for what it truly was. His intellectual abilities allowed him to see not only the cruelty, but also the injustice of the American slave trade (40). By learning the history, Douglass exceeded the blissful ignorance that many slaves, and his resentment towards their captivity grew.

In the passage from chapter two, the reference of how song guided the emotional expression of many slaves shines a light on Douglass’s journey. Douglass admits to never fully understanding the meaning of slave songs, as he only knew of them from the slave perspective; he never considered what they might be perceived as from onlookers until he moved north. The songs were full of anguish, sorrow, and resentment, yet for so long, he believed his other slaves to be less enlightened. A song was a means of a slave expressing themselves in the little freedom they had through lyrics and tone. For Douglass, I believe he found his self-expression through learning. Through reading his narrative, you can tell that rather than playing into emotion, Douglass leans towards the sensible analysis of his journey versus the tortured verse of a slave song. Reading this slave narrative from the perspective of such a unique being definitely alters a readers understanding and perception of the experience.

Memoirs straddle a fine line between fact and fiction. As Russel Baker acknowledges in his memoir “Mother,” the artistry of the genre is telling a true story, with the operative word being “story.” Memoirs embody various factors of story telling, including fictionalizing people to draw on distinct aspect of their personality.

Augustine is surely made a character as he gives himself a compelling story, leaving out the unnecessary details. He does not lie about who he is, but he only includes the details that paint an image of who he was and how he had grown. He talks much about his defining traits such as his love for love and mischief to allow readers to relate to him and see him as a round character rather than a flat image on the page.