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One notable type of war viewed in American literature is between the oppressors and the oppressed. This can be read in Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. As a child on Colonel Lloyds plantation, Douglass saw multiple whippings of different slaves, including being awakened & by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine and whipped & till she was literally covered with blood. When he was seven, he was made to work for Hugh Auld, which was when he began to get a sense for what freedom was like, due in part to his new master’s wife who very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. But after Hugh prevented Douglass from being taught to read, it only fueled his determination to learn, which was his first step into writing antislavery texts. Douglass illustrates how white slaveholders were able to sustain slavery through keeping the slaves uneducated. This is because during the period Douglass was writing in, a majority of people assumed slavery was just something that was normal, being convinced slaves were genuinely unable to engage on any level in everyday society, and were only fit to be slaves for slaveowners. A method slave owners utilized to maintain power over slaves was to keep them unaware of fundamental facts about themselves such as where the rest of their families were sent to work, as well as the disability to learn how to read and write – preventing what the rest of America were aware of about slavery. In this war between the oppressors and oppressed however, Douglass demonstrates that slaveholding not only harms the slaves, but also the slave owners themselves depicting slavery as unnatural for all involved. This can be exemplified through Sophia Auld, who through the corrupt immorality of slaveholding she changed her from an affectionate woman to a monster. From his writings, Douglass is making the point t

hat slavery should be banned for the benefit of all parts of society.
This war between the oppressors and the oppressed can also be witnessed in A Raisin in the Sun. Through Mr. Lindner, Hansberry explores the theme of racial prejudice as an important matter in the story that the Youngers family have to face. The Clybourne Park Improvement Association dispatch Mr. Lindner to convince the Youngers not to relocate into the Clybourne Park neighborhood – wholly lived in by white families, by offering to buy the house from [them] at a financial gain to [their] family. When Lindner first sets foot in their apartment the Youngers are more than welcoming to him, offering him beer and coffee yet Lindner’s amiability turns into awkwardness, even pathetic as he notices that the Youngers are in fact morally upstanding people. The reason Hansberry depicts Lindner becoming more and more pathetic is to show that being racially discriminative is in itself pathetic, for obviously any assumptions about how the black community are unreasonable and savages is completely false, as clearly demonstrated in this scene. The Youngers’ wish for living equality causes the Clybourne Park Improvement Association worried about the prospect of black integration. Conversely, the Youngers are alarmed regarding the potential types of bigotry they could encounter whether it be discrimination or physical threats. Despite this, the Youngers react to these threats with both resilience and bravery. Hansberry is trying to state that the way to manage any form of prejudice is to stand against it and to uphold ones pride as opposed to allow the oppressors to enforce any power over you. Therefore, the war between the oppressed and the oppressors is shown to be fruitless, considering even though the oppressed come off far worse in this battle the oppressors find themselves not gaining much for it to be called a victory.