Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1818 and he escaped slavery in 1836. In his narrative, “Learning to Read and Write”, Douglass describes the various steps and struggles he encountered as he learned to read and write. Douglass’ narrative is clearly an emotional piece as evidenced by his use of diction, intense words and imagery. Analyzing Douglass’ emotional appeal through his diction, word choice and imagery will clarify how he conveyed his message, the inhumane treatment of slaves, to his audience. To understand Douglass’ diction and imagery, the audience and purpose have to be identified first.…
In chapter six From Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass , Douglass focuses on how slavery has affected not just the slaves, but also the slave-owners themselves. In addition, he explains how slavery changes people behaviors. Also, he talks about women. He analyze White women in general and then talks about Sophia specifically. He think that all people are victims in slavery, but they are different in the degree of suffering.…
Throughout this passage, the sentences create notable paradoxes that emphasize the hypocritical aspect of the whites. Those who preach against theft stole the earnings of a hardworking slave and those who preached against abuse and rape were the ones who committed the crime. Douglass shows that they were not true in their ways, and just for show, they would preach against their own actions. It is also ironic that the Church encouraged cruel behavior even though the main message under the church is to show kindness to everyone as Christ had done so. Douglass also employs a juxtaposition when he pictures the church sitting next to the jail.…
I believe that his audience was meant for the abolitionist’s. Many people could argue that he wrote this for the slaves also and that is also true. After Douglass edited his narrative multiple times, he finally created the perfect piece to create a turning point for slavery everywhere. During his editing process, Frederick fixed many parts of his book to engage not only african american slaves, but white abolitionists as well. He used rich vocabulary, very descriptive words, and the truth.…
“The political character of one’s actions is inextricably bound to the political status of one’s subjectivity.” So says Frank B. Wilderson III, a writer focusing on critical and racial theory. For many authors, their message is heavily impacted not only by how they relate to the message but their style of writing itself. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the author has an incredibly personal connection to the anecdotes presented and retells his feelings regarding subjectivity when he was under the chains of slavery. However, Frederick Douglass does not only rely on retelling past experiences to convey a message to his readers.…
Redo of Rhetorical Analysis of “How to Read and Write” (Frederick Douglass) During an era of slavery, manifest destiny, and no hopes of abolition, Frederick Douglass depicts a world where slavery enters the kindest of souls, and pollutes the soul to have no kindness left, only hatred and anger. In the empowering narrative “How to Read and Write”, Douglass sheds light on the cruelty of slavery and its pervasive impact, though his journey to ultimately gain his ability to think through reading and writing. Douglass manages to pull this off by first speaking about his Mistress and their interactions, followed Mistress’ transformation, and finally, the detrimental effects of thinking. Douglass begins his narrative by discussing his case with…
"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide,” Napoleon Bonaparte once spoke. This quote meaning that freedom was hard to come by and where there is freedom, it is a precious thing. Two historical speeches strive for the same end result, freedom, one by an African American man by the name of Frederick Douglass and the other by a woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Both historical speeches were impactful and changed America. Douglass and Stanton had the same basic purpose for giving their respective speeches, however, they accomplished their end goal in very different ways, including their uses of rhetorical devices, their use of allusions, and their tone in their speeches.…
Frederick Douglass. A former slave, a writer, and an abolitionist who fought hard to achieve civil rights for himself and his African-American race. At the age of 20, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and he took on the role as the leader of the abolitionist movement, hence his profound rhetoric. Throughout his lifetime, he composed of several autobiographies that are now today’s classics of American slavery stories. Before his turning point in life,his abolitionist movements, his early life helped him define who he became as we know it.…
Every man and woman was entitled to the precious opportunity to seek their American Dream--except for slaves. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the author, Frederick Douglass, recounts his horrific experience as a slave and the many atrocities he witnessed.. Douglass utilizes diction and motif to vibrantly illustrate that hypocrisy is a negative personality trait…
Specifically, in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by himself, Douglass emphasizes the lack of moral standards and hypocritical beliefs slaveholders held using examples of dehumanizing acts…
Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential abolitionists of 19th century America. His main purpose in writing his narrative was to rebuke the romantic image of slavery in the antebellum south. For decades, southerners and northerners would create reasons for rationalizing the institution of slavery. Through his narrative, Douglass convinces Americans of the true conditions of slavery by including characters that contradict the romantic image of slavery, proving that slaves are intellectually capable, and explaining why slaves are disloyal. Douglass includes many figures from his early life in his narrative that portray an accurate depiction of the horrific life of a slave.…
This passage reflects the book as a whole because it shows the brutality of slavery. This reflects the book because in every chapter Douglass writes about the various strategies that slave owners used to keep the slaves in line, whether that be psychological or physical torture. Throughout the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reminds the reader repeatedly how terrible slavery is and the decisions it forces humans to make. The scene that Douglass depicts also reflects that slave owners like to make examples out of slaves. By whipping Frederick’s Aunt, the slave master instills fear in the other slaves and that fear prevents them from stepping out of line.…
Douglass also uses parallelism when describing his new relationship with his new master, Master Auld. He states, “He was, to me, a new master, and I, to him, a new slave” (45). In this sentence, the parallelism is found in the sentence structure, with “...to me” and “...to him”. The parallelism relays the feelings of each Frederick Douglass and Master Auld about one another. Parallelism is doubly used in the following statement describing the attempt of intimidation Master Thomas had on Douglass; “But in spite of him, and even in spite of myself, I continued to think, and to think about the injustice of…
Frederick Douglass’s use of his personal meanings of slavery and freedom in his writing were exercised to hasten the abolition of slavery in American society in the 19th century. Frederick Douglass defined slavery as a permeating system of oppression and abuse that is forced upon people of color, in such a way that they cannot fully understand the atrocity or determine ways to overcome it. Douglass made a very strong argument that a slave’s lack of knowledge is the reason for the…
Education is one of the most important themes in Frederick Douglass’ 1845 autobiographical memoir Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. However, despite the emphasis placed on education, it is presented as a double-edged sword. On one hand, Frederick Douglass feels that the only way to secure freedom for himself and his fellow slaves is to through learning how to read and write and receiving an education. On the other hand, education is presented as damaging to the mind as Frederick Douglass becomes increasingly aware of the full extent of his servitude. Throughout the memoir, Douglass presents education as a negative force on the psychology of the slaves as well as incompatible with the system of slavery.…