In Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom, setting plays a critical role in the development of the story, clarifying how an individual's environment can be nurturing or harmful to his moral development. Douglass details the places he lived throughout his life and the things he experienced as both a slave and a free man. The setting not only influenced Douglass' moral development, but also influenced his unique outlook on life, which led him to accomplish extraordinary things against all odds for his time and place. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Early in the autobiography, Douglass describes his early childhood living with his grandparents. He describes how he is a slave, even though he didn't know it at the time, and how his grandmother is one too. Despite their slavery, they live in a luxurious home compared to most slaves of the time. The setting during the early parts of Douglass' life is mostly beneficial to his growth (both figuratively and literally), but a constant undercurrent of anxiety taints his memory of this period. The setting is figuratively advantageous to Douglass because his grandparents' home aided the growth of his morality. Literally, it was beneficial because consistent diet and exercise gave him a healthy body. “My grandmother and grandfather's home had few demands. It was a log cabin, or cabin, built of clay, wood, and straw. From a distance it resembled, although much smaller, less spacious, and less substantial, the cabins erected in the western states by early settlers. In my son's eyes, however, it was a noble structure, admirably adapted to promote the ease and convenience of its inhabitants” (Douglass 42). This quote highlights the relatively pleasant setting of Douglass's early childhood. This is significant, because as he gets older, he has to endure terrible circumstances as a slave. If he had been born into that desolate environment, however, he may never have realized how happy he would be if he were no longer a slave. Despite the kind and comfortable life Douglass enjoyed at his grandparents' home, there was a dark cloud over his head, even at a young age. “So soon clouds and shadows began to fall on my path. Once on the road - trouble never comes alone - it didn't take me long to discover another aspect, even more painful for my child's heart. I was told that this "old master", whose name seemed to always be mentioned with fear and trembling, allowed the children to live with their grandmother only for a limited time, and that in fact as soon as they were old enough, they were promptly taken away , to live with the 'old master'” (Douglass 43). This foreboding makes Douglass hate aging, because he knows that the older he gets, the sooner he will have to leave to live with the "old master". Soon Douglass comes of age and has to leave his grandparents' house to go to work for the infamous "old master". He is initially afraid when he arrives at the house of the "old oil master", but soon finds comfort with the cousins ​​who live there. “I had never seen so many children before. Large houses loomed in several directions and scores of men and women were at work in the fields. All that rushing and noise and singing was very different from the stillness of Tuckahoe. Being a newcomer, I was an object of special interest and, after laughing and shouting around me and playing all sorts of wild pranks, they (the children) asked me to come out and play with them. This he refuses to do, preferring.