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How Does Frederick Douglass Use Metaphors

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Tupac Shakur, a rapper from the 90s once said, “Do everything you can to make it around the system, over the system, or out of the system.” Sherman Alexie, the author of “Superman and Me,” grew up poor on a reservation with a love for books, and is now an author. Frederick Douglass, the author of Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, a slave from the 1800’s, who did everything in his power to learn to read and write. Frederick Douglass more effectively uses imagery to support his central idea, however Sherman Alexie does not use metaphors as well to support his central idea.
Frederick Douglass most effectively uses imagery to support his central idea that education is the key for personal freedom and it is wrong for anyone to take that …show more content…

Douglass describes how his mistress used to be a good person, in the text it states, “There was no sorrow or suffering for which she not had a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach.”(Douglass 201) Douglass’ mistress would help anyone who needed or asked for help, she was a kind and generous person at this time. The reader can imagine a nice woman that at this time Douglass thought very highly of, he appreciated all her help, but his opinion of her changed when she changed. The thought of being a slave for life really effected Douglass, for example, in the text it states, “ and the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart.”(Douglass 205) Douglass started to become depressed from the thought of being a slave for life and it is affecting Douglass’ mental status. The reader can see how this is affecting Douglass, because it is very descriptive of how Douglass feels and the reader can feel sympathy for Douglass, because one can feel bad for him. This concludes that Sherman Alexie does not use metaphors as well to support his central idea, unlike Douglass who uses imagery much better to support his central

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In the passage, Frederick Douglass speaks about the particulars of his state of mind as an escaped slave, a fugitive, in 1830’s New York. Throughout the passage, Douglass comprehensively uses similes and metaphors, as well as tone shifts, and repetition, to fully impart unto the reader his not only elation at being free but also his fears, exhaustion and his anxiety towards trusting people. This garners both empathy and understanding from his audience. Douglass opens the passage by describing parts of his escape to New York, comparing his elation to that of a “mariner . . .

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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

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Frederick Douglass’s 1845 excerpt, “Learning to Read and Write” (paragraphs 7+8), shifts from slavery and abolitionism to learning how to write as a slave, utilizes homogenous analogies, parallel structure, and anaphoras, in order to show that although “learning how to write” is a “treacherous” and a “long, tedious effort” for slaves, hard work will eventually lead to success. Homogenous analogies, such as the fruit of abolition and the light breaking upon Douglass, accentuate how the word “abolition” can literally bring a person closer to freedom. For instance, Douglass mentions how a slave who “ran away” or “set fire to a barn” is associated with abolition. It took Douglass sometime to acquire the definition of “abolition” because he had

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318 Words | 2 Pages

In Frederick Douglass’ passage written in to take place in New York in 1838, he uses emotion, and literary devices to convey his state of mind. He starts with persuading the reader to imagine the complexity of being a victim to slavery and escaping. With a cheerful emersion from the deeps of slavery to the openness of freedom. “I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions”. “I felt as one may imagen an unarmed mariner”.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Douglass’ uses of imagery helps the reader’s paint of picture of what living on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation can do to a slave. This sentence not only gives us insight into the physical aspect of being a slave, but also the entire summary of living on one planation. You can live on one plantation for years and at the end only remember the brutal cracked feet. He continues to describe hell on the plantation by saying he was kept almost naked, no stockings, no shoes, no jacket, and no trousers. The imagery used gives us readers an almost unmatchable experience in understanding the life a slave went through.

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1876 Words | 8 Pages

Each device is effective independently, but their placement augmented Douglass’ protest of slavery and racism. First, Douglass recounted his childhood using imagery and metaphor to establish an understanding

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

Frederick Douglass’s Hope for Freedom Hope and fear, two contradictory emotions that influence us all, convicted Frederick Douglass to choose life over death, light over darkness, and freedom over sin. Douglass, in Chapter ten, pages thirty-seven through thirty-nine, of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, utilizes various rhetorical techniques and tone shifts to convey his desperation to find hope in this time of misery and suffering. Mr. Covey, who Douglass has been sent to by his master to be broken, has succeeded in nearly tearing all of Douglass’s dreams of freedom away from him. To expound on his desires to escape, Douglass presents boats as something that induces joy to most but compels slaves to feel terror. Given the multiple uses of repetition, antithesis, indirect tone shifts, and various other rhetorical techniques, we can see Douglass relaying to his audience the hardships of slavery through ethos, the disheartening times that slavery brings, and his breakthrough of determination to obtain freedom.

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What was it like to be a slave? Was it an easy life, or a difficult life? In a selection from “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, written by Frederick Douglass himself, he tells his readers a bit about his life as a slave. Throughout the selection, Douglass uses metaphors and an apostrophe to help his readers understand the internal struggle he went through as a slave.

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To show his perception on the very cruel slaveholders, Douglass uses a multitude of adjectives to create an image in his reader’s mind, while also using metaphors to better comprehend the situation. For example, Douglass stated, “No words, no tears, no prayers, for his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose.” By using this metaphor, Frederick Douglass made the reader question how one could be so cruel to another human being. By visualizing one whipping another without any guilt, it makes the audience understand the inhumanity of slavery. In total, this metaphor creates a agonizing image in the reader’s

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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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392 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).

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1647 Words | 7 Pages

But, he then goes to show how her transformation came to be of a true mistress and how that kind of foolish power corrupted her. She was not a bad person, but being able to control over another human being transformed her from an angel into a demon. Douglass saw the change in her how “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (38). This just shows how slavery affects not just the slave but the slave owners as well. This vicious cycle desecrates and destroys everyone involved.

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985 Words | 4 Pages

Looking back upon his mothers passing when he was around the age of seven, Douglass “received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions [he would] have probably felt at the death of a stranger”. This was because of the unfair separation brought to the family since Douglass was born of a slave mother and a white father who was supposedly his master. Mistresses could be the most unanticipatedly barbarous. Being a woman, a gentle and motherly disposition would be expected but usually they could be the cruelest if they assumed that slaves obtained favor from their master. The constant torment done to women throughout the account of Douglass’ life not only traumatized them but Douglass as well.

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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.

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902 Words | 4 Pages

Frederick Douglass writes his narrative to educate the reader on the horrors of southern slavery. Douglass writes with the purpose of turning the reader against slavery and fight for abolishment. Throughout Frederick Douglass’s narrative he crafts figurative language such as imagery, repetition, and similes to shed light on the horrors of slavery and to get people to fight against slavery. To give the reader a detailed picture Frederick Douglass utilizes imagery. Douglass uses imagery in great detail when describing the beating of Aunt Hester, Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked.

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