Along with startling imagery, Douglass makes use of sardonic irony to get his audience thinking and then questioning slavery. Douglass uses many layers of irony ranging from blant to subtle. The full title of his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave even contains irony. How can one be an “American Slave”? America being the Land of the Free, so the phrase “American Slave” is contradictory. He also uses irony when depicting how Christian slaveholders used their religion as a way of sanctioning the exploitation and brutalization of slaves, comparing the relationship between a slave and its master to the relationship between God and man. As Douglass’ fight for freedom not only goes against the period of slavery by
