How Does Frederick Douglass Use Direct Language

For years, the institution of slavery existed in the United States and was characterized by the legal, inhumane treatment of those enslaved. One of the most prominent figures during this time was Frederick Douglass, an African-American abolitionist who detailed his own experiences in the practice. Having spent most of his life enslaved and wishing to escape, when he finally did he would find himself in a new and overwhelming situation. In this excerpt of his autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” he describes his life after escaping slavery and shows how his state of mind goes from being enthusiastic over freedom to suddenly fearful and lonely. To convey his change, Douglass uses deliberate language, such as various

The first emotion he describes as having is “the highest excitement,” (13) which he states is still an insufficient description. To elaborate on the feeling, he compares it to “as one may imagine the unarmed mariner to feel when he is rescued by a friendly man-of-war” (14-15). Since Douglass believes it is not enough to simply describe his state of mind at the time as excited, he decides to include the simile because he believes the readers would be able to understand him better. Due to this method, the reader is able to—for at least a moment—consider how a mariner would feel in that situation and therefore, they would better understand how happy Douglass felt from their interpretation. However, Douglass’ enthusiasm is described as short-lived because he was soon to be struck by feelings of fear. As he further assesses what freedom means, Douglass’ negative feelings arise from the citizens of New York and compare these inhabitants of the “strange land”

While describing his escape and life after, Douglass uses strong words to depict the horrors of slavery to support his later feelings. One example of this specific diction is when he uses the words “wretchedness” (1) and “tortures” (22) to directly describe the enslavement. By using these words, Douglass not only establishes his hatred of slavery, but it helps to explain why at first he felt excited to be free and also why his feelings develop into fear eventually. After living in cruel conditions for so long, Douglass could not help but look forward to what was ahead of him, until he realized he had to always protect himself from going back to what he left. Additionally, Douglass includes many words to suggest the difficulties a fugitive slave might encounter. Some of which are “helpless” (58) and “painful” (37), and he uses these words to convey the general condition of being a fugitive and his feelings of futility over the status. To be more specific on why he feels those strong emotions, he includes descriptions of obstacles fugitive slaves would have to overcome, such as the “gnawings of hunger” (53) and the “total darkness as to what to do, where to go and where to stay” (49-50). As explained earlier, Douglass believes that he has no allies in either white men or black men, so he instead views them all as enemies and threats. Due to feeling this way, he is left to