ipl-logo

Examples Of Corruption Of Power In Frederick Douglass

330 Words2 Pages
The Corruption of Power

“My mistress was...a kind and tender-hearted woman...Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, her tender heart became stone…” Douglass explained as he flashed back upon his memories of joy and suffering. In his narrative, Douglass uses contrasting diction, a reflective tone, and metaphorical figurative language to argue that power corrupts good people.
First, Douglass used contrasting diction to emphasize the substantial change in his once divine mistress. On page 23, he begins describing his mistress as a heavenly woman. Later on in the text, the good attributes dissolve into terrible ones. The power slavery had given her, corrupted her mind. “Under its influence,
Show More
Related
2020 Words | 9 Pages

This demonstrates how their power had no limits on how far they could go on treating someone badly, especially their slaves. They both take advantage of their power to get what they want, and to make someone’s life

Read More
329 Words | 2 Pages

When he describes in detail the change his mistress underwent from a “tender-hearted woman” to someone zealous for his ignorance he expresses his ability to be an objective observer. This objectiveness one of main foundations of Douglass’s Ethos, or ethical appeal. While Douglass does show that he is an

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass is also expressing the mental affect that her mistreatment had on him. On the same page Douglass wrote, “Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone…” (pg.66). In this metaphor Douglass conveys how the power of slavery made his mistress become cruel.

Read More
687 Words | 3 Pages

Sean Kim Mr. Nguyen English 3H 12 November 2014 Frederick Douglass Essay All through American history, minority gatherings were casualties of American administrative strategies, and these approaches made them powerless against uncouth and uncaring treatment on account of white Americans. American subjugation is a telling case of an administration endorsed foundation that deceived and abused a race of individuals by instilling and empowering oppression, prejudice and misuse. This establishment is harmful to slaves and slave holders indistinguishable in light of the fact that American culture, particularly in the south, experienced a dehumanization transform keeping in mind the end goal to actualize the savage and heartless convention. In the

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

The autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written in 1845 in Massachusetts, narrates the evils of slavery through the point of view of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass is a slave who focuses his attention into escaping the horrors of slavery. He articulates his mournful story to anyone and everyone, in hopes of disclosing the crimes that come with slavery. In doing so, Douglass uses many rhetorical strategies to make effective arguments against slavery. Frederick Douglass makes a point to demonstrate the deterioration slavery yields from moral, benevolent people into ruthless, cold-hearted people.

Read More
852 Words | 4 Pages

In document four it states in 1881 during the Reconstruction Period after the Republicans fall Frederick Douglass a civil rights activist was surprised to find a different type of prejudice and discrimination in the South. Douglass found that African Americans were still treated poorly with no real rights as if they were still slaves. They were not treated as equals to the whites who had once been there masters, even though they were newly freed slaves. The white man wanted to much power and no real change. They were still in charge and did not want to give up the power they had possessed.

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

“One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognizes a human being in a slave” (Angelina Grimke). This quote was created to show the effect that slavery had on not only the slave, but the slaveholder. The slaveholder would dehumanize the slave to the point where the human was no longer recognizable; instead, the slave was property. Throughout this autobiography, Frederick Douglass uses language to portray the similarities and differences between the two sides. He allows the reader to spend a day in the life of a slave to see the effects from it.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

Read More
1636 Words | 7 Pages

Just Versus Unjust Violence: A Rhetorical Analysis of Violence in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe present slavery in vastly distinct ways. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, author Frederick Douglass dives into a grisly world filled with bloodshed and in the middle of it a man willing to do what it takes to be educated and in control of his own person, narrated with the voice of reason. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, author Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts a variety of characters, their struggle with slavery and religion, their personal relationships, and their deep inner feelings, with no small degree of emotion and sentimentality. Douglass and Stowe’s use of

Read More
1647 Words | 7 Pages

Dehumanization of both slaves and slave owners must occur for slavery to exist. Slavery harms everyone involved, including the slaveholders who superficially seem to profit from the arrangement. Douglass’s narrative acknowledges the damage inflicted on both sides of the institution of slavery, emphasizing that a human being’s personality and disposition form per the laws and socially acceptable practices exhibited within the society. Douglass has an excellent example how he seen with his own eyes how his mistress became demonized when she became an owner of a slave. Douglass became Mrs. Auld's first salve owner and at the begging when they first met “she [was] of the kindest heart and finest feelings” (38).

Read More
1838 Words | 8 Pages

PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.

Read More
257 Words | 2 Pages

“With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final”; not slavery and oppression.” This relates to the hardships and the fact that the people don’t recognize how terrible it is. And that these meanings of these “free” words mean something else to him and other slaves. He shows that the changes are hard but once they are made everything will be peaceful. Rhetorical features and strategies are Douglass’ forte’ in engaging with the audience.

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

John Sekora notes Martha K. Cobb’s thoughts in regards to the formation of black literary tradition, when she says “the first-person voice presents the particularity of point of view that allows the narrator-protagonist the distinctive advantage of projecting his image, ordering his experiences, and presenting his thoughts in the context of his own understanding of black reality as it had worked itself out in his own life … it is a persistent defining and interpreting of personal, human, and moral identity, hence one’s worth, on the slave narrator’s own terms rather than on terms imposed by the society that has enslaved him or her (Sekora 484).” This is exactly what Douglass is doing in this text. In this narrative, he presents so many different

Read More

More about Examples Of Corruption Of Power In Frederick Douglass

Related Topics

Open Document