What Is The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Devices

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an interesting autobiography of the life of Frederick Douglass, an African American who spent time in slavery, then eventually escaped. Douglass was born into slavery, and accepted it for a good while of the time that he was in slavery. Once he realized that escaping was the only option to settle for, he finally tried to escape, and succeeded. In order to get the point across that slavery is bad and that slaves are people as well as Caucasian Americans, Douglass uses several rhetorical devices including repetition, anecdotes, and imagery, as well as some others.
` By using repetition in this narrative, Douglass gets his point across by sticking specific ideas into the reader’s head. For example, he writes, “Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order…” (Douglass, X, 37), and the word “work” is repeated. By repeating this word, he sticks the idea that all the slaves did was work, and that it is what their lives revolved around. So, Douglass uses repetition to get ideas stuck in the heads of the readers. …show more content…

For example, Douglass gives an anecdote that “...she fell into the fire, and burned herself horribly.” (Douglass, IX, 33), recalling a story when one of the weaker slaves was injured badly, proving what horrible conditions the slaves lived in, regardless of their masters. This specific anecdote also works with pathos to make the reader feel bad for the slaves, helping Douglass’ point that slavery is

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