In this excerpt from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass is informing his fellow comrades that tried to escape with him to tell their superiors nothing. He instructs them to get rid of their passes that were forged by Douglass with their master’s signature on it in any way possible. The ticket was enough proof to put all of them in prison or to send them down south. Douglass also continually repeats “own nothing” (54) which means if anyone asks them about the planned escape deny anything and feign ignorant. The end of the excerpt elucidates the brotherhood that was created between the slaves by how he says they will “succeed or fail together” (54) because they do not want anyone to endure the dreadful pain by themselves.
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Throughout the narrative Douglass tells the readers stories about his life as a slave, but the readers are mostly interested in what he is famous for, which is his escape. In this excerpt it brings up his failed escape from slavery, and now the readers are finally entering the part of his life that made him famous. This passage also brings up an important effect of slavery, which is the friendships that are made from it. All the slaves that were involved in the failed escape had each other’s back throughout it because they did not want one to suffer while the others thrived. This is displayed when he says, “our confidence in each other was unshaken” (54). This passage stands out to readers because throughout the narrative Douglass normally gives wise words of wisdom after he describes a exhilarating situation, which is in this case almost getting caught. These wise words influence readers to be more of a team player in everyday life by how the men looked out for each other and made sure all evidence was hidden away by “passing around the word own nothing” …show more content…
In the passage they were trying to tear up their travel passes as they arrived St. Michael’s, which is where they were interrogated by Mr. Hamilton. Throughout all of this white superiors were tying up the slaves to make sure they do not make a break for it. Henry Harris, however, was uncooperative and was fighting the constables, but they soon overpowered him and tied him up like the rest of them. This excerpt fits in with the rest of the chapter because chapter ten discusses his life a year before he escapes, and this passage falls into that category. It also fits into the book as a whole because it gives a specific example of a painful experience as a slave, which is what the book centers on. Throughout the narrative Douglass exhibits many different writing strategies, but in this passage the ones that stick out are his diction and sentence structure. His diction is characterized here as straightforward because he does not want any readers to be confused in this scene since it is an eminent moment in his life. He also keeps it to the point instead of enhancing the vocabulary because he wants the reader to understand his message of how awful slavery was and how they should do everything they can to forbid it. Another characteristic of his writing is his sentence structure by containing only simple sentences, and not
Throughout the narrative Douglass tells the readers stories about his life as a slave, but the readers are mostly interested in what he is famous for, which is his escape. In this excerpt it brings up his failed escape from slavery, and now the readers are finally entering the part of his life that made him famous. This passage also brings up an important effect of slavery, which is the friendships that are made from it. All the slaves that were involved in the failed escape had each other’s back throughout it because they did not want one to suffer while the others thrived. This is displayed when he says, “our confidence in each other was unshaken” (54). This passage stands out to readers because throughout the narrative Douglass normally gives wise words of wisdom after he describes a exhilarating situation, which is in this case almost getting caught. These wise words influence readers to be more of a team player in everyday life by how the men looked out for each other and made sure all evidence was hidden away by “passing around the word own nothing” …show more content…
In the passage they were trying to tear up their travel passes as they arrived St. Michael’s, which is where they were interrogated by Mr. Hamilton. Throughout all of this white superiors were tying up the slaves to make sure they do not make a break for it. Henry Harris, however, was uncooperative and was fighting the constables, but they soon overpowered him and tied him up like the rest of them. This excerpt fits in with the rest of the chapter because chapter ten discusses his life a year before he escapes, and this passage falls into that category. It also fits into the book as a whole because it gives a specific example of a painful experience as a slave, which is what the book centers on. Throughout the narrative Douglass exhibits many different writing strategies, but in this passage the ones that stick out are his diction and sentence structure. His diction is characterized here as straightforward because he does not want any readers to be confused in this scene since it is an eminent moment in his life. He also keeps it to the point instead of enhancing the vocabulary because he wants the reader to understand his message of how awful slavery was and how they should do everything they can to forbid it. Another characteristic of his writing is his sentence structure by containing only simple sentences, and not