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.…
Group 4. “I have observed this in my experience of slavery, -- that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.”…
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass was first published in 1845 in the city of Boston. Frederick appeals to human compassion throughout his narrative as he describes his personal encounters with slavery. From the Great House Farm to the bustling city of Baltimore, Frederick develops a mind of his own as he learns about his standing in the world. In chapter 6, Frederick claims that slavery detrimentally effects both slaves and their masters. Throughout the chapter Frederick used his experience with Sophia Auld and his journey to becoming illustrate to support his claim.…
The one thing I remember most when I think about our US history is a hateful time period. That time period is when the US allowed Americans to own African Americans. Mostly know as slavery. Frederick Douglass in his book titled “Narrative Of Frederick Douglass”(1845) uses three good appeals by explaining how he reached his goals of proving that slavery was a very hard time for him best through emotion and factual appeals to explain how slavery was back in the day and how he gained his freedom and moved to New York. One of the appeals that got me most was when he says “slaves were like farm equipment.”…
As it is well known about Fredrick Douglass, he was a slave who became free and made a huge impression on history, as we know it. In the context of this close reading we are going to see the heartache and yarning for freedom of not only the body but also the mind as his hope is dwindling. Douglass in this context is releasing his inner emotions that he tries to keep cool and calm, but wants them to run free so that he may have some sort of peace. These sections will be taken from chapter 10 paragraph 5.…
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.…
“You must stop a little, there is no man whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think.” How would you feel if President Abraham Lincoln were to tell you this? You might feel so excited that you could not speak, no? Well, for Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist for African Americans, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have met him.…
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass was filled with metaphors, stories and anything to draw the reader in. He used dates and quotes to remind you this is real and not some horror story, this is actually what people went through at one point in time. He captivated the attention of the reader with his heart-wrenching personal stories, and the stories that were more humorous. He put you in his shoes, describing the different aspects of his life as a slave. He was well educated, especially for a slave and you saw that in his literature, which totally defeat the absent minded thinking of…
Douglass does an exemplary job of influencing his readers by using diction to evoke emotion. For instance, he uses phrases like “the galling chains of slavery” (p. 39) to associate slavery with repugnant thoughts. Additionally, I enjoyed getting an entirely first person point of view perspective on the events that transpired in Douglass’s lifetime in contrast to the limited information I’ve been able to gather through school textbooks. In this way, the reader gets to “borrow Douglass’s mind”, and consequently, view a raw, unmitigated account of a slave’s experience. That being said, I would not read this work again.…
In both the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass and Beloved by Toni Morrison, the abuse of power by slave masters and their tendencies to turn into monstrous human beings is depicted. In the Narrative, the true story of an actual past slave, Frederick Douglass recounts his factual experience with brutal slave owners. This historical truth is also portrayed in Beloved by protagonist Sethe. While the author was not writing from personal experience as a slave, she rendered the experience artistically in Beloved through the eyes and life of Sethe. While both stories showcase different perspectives, they are each able to depict powers ability to corrupt its wielder, at this time being the enslavers.…
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an abolitionist publisher and orator in the anti-slave movement. He was born in to slavery and escaped in 1838. He was invited to speak about how the Fourth of July meant for the black population in the U.S. In acceptance, Douglass presented his speech in Rochester, New York on July 5th 1852. In his speech, he attacks the irony and hypocrisy of the nation’s patriotic holiday that celebrates freedom and independence, while most of the black population were still enslaved.…
In “Learning To Read and Write, Frederick Douglass depicts his life as a young slave trying to read and write without a proper teacher. He not only speaks of unconventional ways of learning but also the world in which he was living in. It shows the epitome of human cruelty. It represents the extent of which humans can be killers. Frederick Douglass uses pathos, irony, and metaphors to make us relay to his struggle to read and write and showing that he accomplished many things against unconquerable odds.…
The Road to Freedom In his excerpt “Learning to Read and Write”, Public speaker, editor, author and former slave, Frederick Douglass, recounts his path to learning how to read and write in order to escape to the north to be a freed man. In order to convey his strong emotions of helplessness and loathing, Douglass effectively uses metaphor and references to animals to convince abolitionists to sympathize with his situation. Douglass begins his narrative by recounting the instruction from his mistress to teach him how to read and write. The words used to describe the transition of his mistress after her “training in the exercise of irresponsible power” (Douglass 100) inject a fear like prey has to predator to appeal to the intense emotions of…