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Effects Of Slavery In Frederick Douglass

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The extremely brutal and dehumanizing effects of slavery can shape one's life forever .Throughout Frederick Douglass narrative, he vividly describes his personal experiences as a slave, and portrays the devastating and dehumanizing effects of slavery. Douglass travels through many plantations, however while with Colonel Lloyd, Mr. Auld, Mr. Hugh, and Mr.Covey Douglass experiences how slaves are treated like animals, how education aided him in understanding life as a slave, and the cruelty, and brutality of slavery. While a young uneducated slave on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, Douglass demonstrates how slaves are treated like animals by using vivid descriptions of his personal experiences. Recounting the personality and character of Mr.Gore, …show more content…

Covey's plantation, Douglass describes in profound detail the brutality and brutality that slaves experience through severe beatings. Douglass describes the brutality of Mr. Covey's beating, by using parallelism and vivid imagery, Douglass states, “Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whippings, cutting my back, causing blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger” (58). Through the use of parallelism and vivid imagery Douglass portrays the brutality of Mr.Covey and the severe pain that slaves endure. He vividly describes his flesh wounds that demonstrate how relentless Mr. Covey is. In addition, Douglass uses his personal experience to portray the whippings and how dehumanizing they are and the extreme lifestyle slaves live in. Furthermore, Mr. Covey continues to reign terror upon Douglass, when Douglass conveys his state of mind by using asyndeton, and parallelism. Douglass proclaims, “Mr.Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit… and behold a man transformed into a brute!”(63). The dehumanizing effects of slavery are clearly seen here, by how Douglass uses asyndeton to describe how slavery has broken him in every way. Also Douglass demonstrates how the severe whippings he has gotten have completely changed him into a “brute”. This illustrates the dehumanizing effects perfectly because it shows Douglass transformation from a normal human being to a more violent and angry human being. Douglass continues to express the transformation when he depicts his altercation with Mr.Covey, employing metaphor. Parallelism, and vivid imagery: “ I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose. He held onto me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all back. He trembled like a leaf” (71). Douglas portrays his physical confrontation with Mr. Covey to show how all of his beatings and whippings have changed him as man. They have made him into a brute and a person

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