Frederick Douglass An American Slave Rhetorical Analysis

Former slave and civil rights advocate, Federick Douglass, in his novel “The Narrative of Federick Douglass: An American Slave”, describes the harrowing account of his experiences as a slave in America. Douglass’ purpose is to argue, convince and persuade the audience to share his belief that education is the pathway to freedom. He uses ethos to persuade the audience of his beliefs.
Federick Douglass wrote the narrative as a recollection of his memories during of which he was a slave. His book gave people from all walks of lives a chance to understand/see what being a slave meant and how it affected the person. As the reader reads further in to the narrative, it is made extremely apparent his anger towards his slave owners which could be, in some part, due to his advancement in education. “An educated slave is a discontent slave”. By stating and arguing his own feelings and beliefs about the situation that he and many others were unfortunately in, the audience was thoroughly convinced of the inhumane ways of slavery, as well as persuaded of his beliefs.
*quote from f.d. about his own stories he’s witnessed*, put ethos in to action. Many people had heard of the horrifying …show more content…
F.D. tells of his own accounts as a slave in order to make justifiable claims throughout the narrative, as well as to effectively persuade the reader to agree with his own opinions. He recounts his journey to education in chronological sequencing organized by his own experiences with the matter at hand, which makes it easier for readers to comprehend. By the use of rhetorical appeals and sentence structures, F.D. makes his narrative easy to comprehend and interesting enough to keep the reader on their toes at all times. He effectively proves his claim that education is a necessary part to the establishment of freedom mainly by the use of ethos, along with the other rhetorical