Frederick Douglass selects details, manipulates language and establishes a cynical tone to reveal his ambivalent attitude toward his own condition as a freedman in the North after his successful escape from the South. After his successful escape from slavery, Douglass is elated at gaining his own freedom, “a moment of the highest excitement,” (Douglass 135) yet he is uncertain of his future. For instance, Douglass’s delighted state of mind is, “however, very soon subsided; and [he] was again seized with a feeling of great insecurity and loneliness” (Douglass 136). Douglas deliberately renders this time to express his fear of being recaptured by a northern stranger, of falling “into the hands of money-loving kidnappers” (Douglass 136). Douglass’s conscious use of
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Douglass’s cynical tone denotes his distrust in the people around him, particularly white men who desire to recapture Douglass. Douglass refers to the white men as “money-loving kidnappers,” “the hideous crocodile [that] seizes upon his prey,” “merciless men-hunters,” and even “the monsters of the deep swallow up the helpless fish upon which they subsist” (Douglass). These images reflect the aggressive nature of greedy white men as perceived by Douglass, amplifying his deep hostility and mistrust toward the people that seek to recapture him, seek to push him into the gloomy path of slavery again. Overall, Frederick Douglass selects details, manipulates language and establishes a cynical tone to unfold his fears and insecurities, a result of slavery, in the people around him as a freedman who is susceptible to be recaptured, and thus, Douglass successfully forms a compelling argument against slavery and its debilitating consequences on a fugitive
Douglass’s cynical tone denotes his distrust in the people around him, particularly white men who desire to recapture Douglass. Douglass refers to the white men as “money-loving kidnappers,” “the hideous crocodile [that] seizes upon his prey,” “merciless men-hunters,” and even “the monsters of the deep swallow up the helpless fish upon which they subsist” (Douglass). These images reflect the aggressive nature of greedy white men as perceived by Douglass, amplifying his deep hostility and mistrust toward the people that seek to recapture him, seek to push him into the gloomy path of slavery again. Overall, Frederick Douglass selects details, manipulates language and establishes a cynical tone to unfold his fears and insecurities, a result of slavery, in the people around him as a freedman who is susceptible to be recaptured, and thus, Douglass successfully forms a compelling argument against slavery and its debilitating consequences on a fugitive