In The Story of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself by Frederick Douglass, “Yet I Marvel” by Countee Cullen and “The Man Who Was Almost a Slave” by Richard Wright Man,” a discernible transmogrification toward black aesthetics occurred throughout contrasting literary periods. Douglass's slavery narrative, written in the 19th century to describe the astringent realities of slavery in America, is indicative of the protest aesthetic of African-American literature. Cullen's poetry, on the other hand, invigorates British Romantic poetry by imitating iambic pentameter and embodies bourgeois aesthetics, which primarily addresses issues of class and race. Wright's story is an archetype of the proletarian aesthetic, which focuses primarily on inequality within the working class and strongly evokes the Communist Party. Black aesthetics played a role in improving the overall makeup of African American lives by addressing the ethical issues of the time, such as the evils of slavery and unprecedented economic disadvantage, which helped to circumvent racial and class intolerance. Many Americans deny slavery as a means of salvation, it is crucial to note that Douglass's account, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, is written about the authentic treacherous acts of slave owners. 'slaves deceiving slaves while deceiving their slaves. noting that a benevolent slave owner cannot exist. During the Christmas holidays, Douglass claims that slave owners concede to the drunkenness of their slaves in order to deceive the slaves into believing that the consequences of drunkenness are associated with the disaster of freedom, therefore to... ... middle of paper .... ....be more religious than any other race. Cullen then alludes to the Bible where Adam, the first man capable of sin, forged God from “reflecting flesh” (Cullen 4); it is a conventional element for Christians that promises hope and salvation after death; however, this is allegorically exercised in the poem as an irony to embody the predicament of human existence. This biblical argument can be seen as a lack of salvation for African Americans who are perpetually disadvantaged as second-class citizens simply because of deviation in skin color, while white skin color leads to poverty. Additionally, another theme for Cullen's "Yet I Marvel" is an emotional ambivalence about being black: feelings of punishment and pride. On the one hand, the poet's black skin is included in the list of punishments: blindness of the mole and punishments of Tantalus and Sisyphus..