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Sight And Sound In Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

Decent Essays

Authors often appeal to the five senses in order to keep the audience engaged. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the author describes and utilizes all five senses in order to illustrate a clear picture of what he is trying to convey to the reader. In this passage, Douglass focuses mainly on two senses; Sight and Sound. In doing so, Douglass is able to make the author feel as though they have experienced what he had. Douglass uses sight and sound to describe songs that slaves often sang and is able to make the audience see what the slaves looked like while singing and actually hear the songs they sang. The importance in doing this is that Douglass wants to provoke the deep emotion behind this cultural aspect of slaves in the reader and make them feel the way he does about these songs. …show more content…

In the narrative, the slaves are said to be on their way to the Great House Farm for their monthly allowance while singing. This suggests that the slaves are walking on some pathway, in a group, and probably carrying sacks of some sort in order to carry the allowance back. Douglass also specifies that, “They would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone” (Douglass). With this line, Douglass in trying to paint a picture of the way slaves looked while singing. They sang sad songs in a happy way, which suggest there was laughter, cheering, and maybe dancing involved. They also sang happy songs in a sad way. This expresses that the slaves were probably walking more slowly during these songs and perhaps they were slouching. Douglass is emphasizing the importance of how slaves looked while singing their

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