Douglass effectively employs metaphor to embellish the corruption that came from slavery. Douglass establishes a change of his mistress when he presents, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work” (Douglass 32). Before Sophia became a slaveholder, she was nice to him, but when she became a slaveholder, she was aggressive to him. This use of metaphor indicates the corruption because of her personality changes while she had the power in her hands as a slaveholder. Therefore, the slaves consider the corruption as a poison. By providing this information, all the characters that were in Mrs. Auld vanished. He then elaborates, “When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted
