What are themes in the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave?

Douglass's primary goal in writing this book
was to convey the injustice of slavery. He shares many personally
painful experiences throughout the narrative, from watching his aunt be brutally beaten to
explaining that he holds no particular attachments to his mother because he was never allowed to
know her. He explains that he has been transferred as property from one master to the next and
that he has had to learn how to survive each new situation. He has been deprived of family,
education, freedom, and basic human liberties. In a nation founded on freedom for all, he has
been denied a great deal.

Another theme that arises is the
power of literacy. Through Mrs. Auld (and some little hungry white boys),
Douglass learns enough of the basics of phonics that he is able to teach himself how to read.
This opens up an entirely new world to him, one where he hears about and begins to understand
abolitionism. From the moment that Mr. Auld forbids his wife from providing any further reading
instruction, Douglass understands that literacy has a transforming power to change the direction
of his life.

In his narrative, Douglass also makes a compelling case against
the dangers of false Christianity. Douglass himself believes in
God, but he often points to those who do evil in the name of God and then call themselves
Christian. He notes:

Between the Christianity of this
land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible differenceso wide, that to
receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt,
and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love
the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt,
slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this
land.

Douglass witnessed numerous people living
hypocritical lives which were not in accordance with the teachings of Christ, and he asserts
that to love Christ is to hate slavery.