Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, the author of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass was a self-taught slave that was able to escape the brutality of slavery in the year of 1838. Frederick Douglass’s book is separated into 3 main sections, including, a beginning, middle, and end. The purpose of the narrative is to improve the audience's understanding of Douglass’s experience of being a slave, the horrible treatment slaves received, and how Douglass was able to overcome and escape slavery. All throughout the narrative, Douglass uses many rhetorical devices, including, diction, imagery, and syntax, which helps the audience understand, one of his main chapters, chapter 5. In this chapter Douglass implies that the overall purpose is to emphasize the animalistic, inhuman treatment slaves received, how Douglass felt about leaving Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and his luck of being able to move to Mr. and Mrs. Auld's.

After about nine chapters detailing his slave life, he says, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” (Douglass, 75) He then goes on to describe the turning point for him that sparked his quest for freedom. By structuring his narrative this way, he reveals both sides- how slavery broke him “in body, soul, and spirit” (Douglass, 73) and how it eventually “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom” within him (Douglass, 80). In doing so, he gives the reader an insight into how he became himself, and reinforces the evils of slavery in the way it shapes a man’s life. Douglass’ use of diction and structure effectively persuades the reader of the barbarity and inhumanity that comes as a result of slavery.

My first example of diction that Douglass uses is “…in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well…” (2) Here Douglass is describing how slaveholders have sex with the female slaves and abandon the children born from it. He uses words such as odiousness, lust, and wicked desires to show how the slaveholders use and abuse the slaves in their employment for their own gratification. By using the aforementioned words, Douglass try’s to convey to his target audience the audacity of these men who abandon

Douglass’s ethos is never more apparent than the preface preceding the story. This introductory note provides a rich background of Douglass’s life as a former slave and transformation into a famous abolitionist, serving as authentication that the piece was written by a literate and educated African American. For instance, in an excerpt

There is so much damage happening in Douglass’ story that it is challenging to grasp how such an inhuman thing can happen not so long ago from today. Douglass illustrates how dehumanization of black slaves by the whites played a significant role in the timeline of slavery and the brutal occurrences that seemed to expand with it. Whether it was before, during, or after slavery, the slaves were dehumanized in many ways. Without dehumanizing the black slaves' society we would be unable to preserve the experience of violence in order to keep slaves thrive intact situated. But on top of that slaves were punished in extreme manners physically and mentally which this would have caused them to come to a sort of break and become a brute. Not only keeping

Through the use of various anecdotes, Frederick Douglass illustrates the brutality suffered by the slave; the reader reacts emotionally to these incidents. For instance when Douglass talks about how the slaves are beaten and mistreated he discusses a slave who was shot since he refused to obey his master: ”and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight”(39). In this quote Douglass shows how mistreated the slaves were and makes the reader feel sad that a slave would be shot before given another chance to listen to his master. Also he makes us feel anger at the master that after an instant of disobeying the master's a slave would be killed and the body would be left to just sink down into the water. Similarly,

rederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Frederick douglass had a very challenging life, people were very racist and were very for slavery. Douglass was very Anti slavery and attended the anti slavery conventions. Douglass used a very simple style of writing and it was very direct, and said thing straight up, since it was his story going thru life wanting equal rights for the black community Douglass targets his essay towards the white community Douglass used diverse forms of syntax, figurative language, and metaphorical phrases in his writing. His tone is very strong and and makes someone feel like they are listening to him, his main goal is to change the way the white community looks at the

In the first paragraph, Douglass begins describing Mrs. Auld as “a women of the kindest heart and finest feelings,” (line 2) as well as “entirely unlike any other white women I had ever seen” (line 8). Douglass is using positive connotation to describe Mrs. Auld but then begins to describe her negatively. Douglass describes Mrs. Auld after changing saying “that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (line 20). Douglass now is going completely against how he described Mrs. Auld before. He does this to show the reader how people can change drastically. The words that Douglass uses are extremes such as “angelic” and “demon” these are two completely opposite descriptions but he wants to show his relationship with the mistress and how she changed. Douglass described his thoughts on no longer being taught by Ms. Auld as “saddened” but he was “gladdened” by what Mr. Auld had taught him, which was that education was “the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Douglass wanted to be educated and said that it would be “difficult” but he had “hope” to learn (lines 40-45). Douglass used contrasting diction to show the irony in his relationship between himself and Mr. Auld. The contrasting words portray the two disparate emotions toward the Aulds. In all of these passages, Douglass is using contrasting diction to emphasize his

Douglass explains the way they were treated and talked about. “ The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of a single card; and many a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by bargains arranged in a state of brutal drunkenness” (Faigley page 384) Any mother with tender hearts would be moved by those words. He persuades people to side with him, and feel for him. He wants people to be upset by his words so that things will get changed.

Before he began to learn, Douglass implies in his writing that he had not ever considered a life aside from being a slave. Therefore, when he gains knowledge and becomes aware of such a choice, but is not given a clear way out, Douglass descends into despair. He is essentially faced with a problem, yet given no clear or easy solution. Douglass again communicates despair to the reader a bit further into the book when he writes, “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died, the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man turned into a brute! (Douglass 63)” Here Douglass is referring to the time he spent living with Mr. Covey, a known slave breaker. Mr. Covey drove Frederick Douglass to the brink of death and broke his spirit for a short

Throughout the speech, Douglass’ tone gets more and more raucous to emphasize that slavery existed as a horrible thing. The speech includes personal experiences and Douglass’ thoughts throughout the years when he breathed as a slave.

Douglass describes her transformation towards an inhuman person by portraying her as the victim. Douglass faults the system as a whole rather than the individual slaveholders, who he believes have no choice but to become corrupted by the immoral institution. He doesn’t expect white’s to be nice to people of color and accepts that she will change and turn into a cruel individual like the rest of the white people that Douglass has had to deal with throughout his life.

While reading this powerful section we can feel the anger and sadness of Douglass. When he found out the way the owners treated his grandmother after years of serving her owners. She was living by herself in a hut far away to die lonely. His grandmother was always a good slave to the Anthony’s and after serving for them for so long they didn’t award her in setting her free in his grandmothers older age. Sounds like when someone gets older they don’t value the individual no more, even though she served him through his life. And the new owners did not value her because of her age. Just because they can’t work as they could in earlier years, they don’t appreciated or value her no more and at the end abandoned her to die all alone. He also questioning God and its higher power

He then writes of the time at which he was seven years old where he was sold to work for a white family. It was here that he slowly and painstakingly taught himself the rudiments of reading and writing. It was here that Douglass learned that the lack of slaves’ education keeps them ignorant and therefore easier to control. Douglass then writes of a major turning point in his life where his owner sent him to do field work with an abusive plantation owner who mentally and physically dehumanized him, “I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass 918). Here, Douglass is describing that he is going through such relentless abuse that his human qualities are practically being beaten out of him, becoming more of a creature in nature. Douglass then writes of how he finally rebelled against the slave holder and they started fighting, after the slave holder runs off, so does Douglass, who vows to never be whipped again. Douglass then writes of his freedom from torment and how triumphant he feels for

In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and he wants to get rid of the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.