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Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Questions

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In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in 1845, Douglass is reflecting on his experiences as a slave, as well as the known experiences of others, following his escape from bondage. He is making a plea to the Northerners who do not have a complete knowledge or understanding of the conditions of slavery in the South or are otherwise unopinionated in relation to it. In a later passage of the narrative, he focuses on the common beliefs of slave owners through a description of Mr. Hopkins, a former overseer he reported to. He reflects on this ideal that any problematic actions, or “misbehavior,” of slaves is awarded with abuse and punishment. Douglass includes concise and sarcastic rhetorical questions and responses in order to shed …show more content…

He utilizes exceptionally aggressive reactions that seem way over the top to show how ridiculous the typical responses to these very questions are. Douglass follows up a simple question of unhappy facial expressions with, “It is said, he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out” (Douglass 67). In the same sense, he follows up a slave making an honest mistake by breaking a tool with a common response of, “It is owing to his carelessness, and for it a slave must always be whipped” (Douglass 68). Douglass is making a mockery of these ludicrous responses while still drawing awareness to their intense reactions to normal actions and sentiments. He is again utilizing this over-the-top, though incredibly typical, reaction to engage the audience. Douglass has shown the slaves humanity through the questions and now he is working to emphasize the level of insanity displayed by the top tier of the Southern hierarchy. He successfully works to mock this class, fueling the Northern audience to make an effort to disassociate from these Southerners or otherwise become opinionated on the matter. This mocking helps to convince the audience of the terrors of slave society through the voice of the slave owners, showing the absurdity of the excuses for abuse of

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161 Words | 1 Pages

Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

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526 Words | 3 Pages

He uses words such as, “hideous” and “revolting” to show how America’s past promises of all men are equal and present actions of slavery are both repulsive and disgusting. In one example, he stated “a day that reveals to him the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim”. The words “injustice” and “cruelty” reveals how slaves are treated in the country and on the 4th of July it is divulged to them that they are “the constant victim”. Douglass additionally utilizes sentence structure to improve the quality of his

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1422 Words | 6 Pages

It makes the audience consider their own deeds and participation in the enduring of the slavery institution. Secondly Douglass challenges the audience's understanding of liberty by posing rhetorical queries. He asks, "To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?" These inquiries highlight the contradiction of praising freedom while restricting it to others.

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1876 Words | 8 Pages

Douglass also used verbal irony to denounce the contradictory and abusive behavior of his masters, which emotionally appealed to anger and ethically to shame; he achieved the same thing through situational irony which logically appealed to an audience well acclimated to sympathizing with a black man. Douglass’ use of irony appeals on multiple levels as he continues to protest slavery and move towards advanced devices, the latter of which will conclude when he recounts

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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751 Words | 4 Pages

As someone who has witnessed the atrocities of slavery, Douglass is able to paint a picture for his audience consisting of northerners who had most likely never even been to the South. For these people who don’t own slaves themselves, he serves as a window into this world of slavery in southern states. This is further shown by Douglass repeatedly using phrases such as “I see” and “I hear” (354). These clauses demonstrate the spectatorship of the audience’s perspective, since the majority of the movement consisted of Northerners. Without the emphasis on Douglass’ own experience throughout the speech, it would be increasingly difficult to know that he was a witness to slavery and his audience was not.

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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.

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

Group Essay on Frederick Douglass “That this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system”, and that Frederick Douglass does in his eponymous autobiography. Douglass throws light by dispelling the myths of the slave system, which received support from all parts of society. To dispel these myths Douglass begins to construct an argument composed around a series of rhetorical appeals and devices. Douglass illustrates that slavery is dehumanizing, corrupting, and promotes Christian hypocrisy. Using telling details, Douglass describes the dehumanizing effects of the slave system which condones the treatment of human beings as property.

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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.

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460 Words | 2 Pages

After being separated from his mother at a young age, Frederick Douglass fights back against slavery and human rights. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author, Frederick Douglass, uses powerful rhetoric to disprove the Pragmatic and the Scientific pro-slavery arguments of Pre-Civil War America. The Pragmatic Argument is about how many people believe that if all black slaves were to be freed, then this would result in convulsions which would then lead to extermination of the one or other race. Many people also believed that black slavery was necessary for American history.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

He proclaims that "…While we are…living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!" By showing the mundanity of the slave, Douglass shows the audience that the slaves are human and therefore unable to be considered property. He forces his audience to examine their own lives and realize their similarities to the slaves and the hypocrisy of slavery. He doesn't give his audience a chance to disagree with his stance on slavery because he makes such a blunt argument. Douglass asks again, "Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man?

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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.

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392 Words | 2 Pages

The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through

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973 Words | 4 Pages

Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.

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