In the speech for fourth of July celebrations invited by Rochester, the indignant Frederick Douglass strongly criticizes the hypocrisy of the celebrations of the freedom and independence in his nation. He pointedly questions all present people the meaning of celebrations of Fourth July to the black people, wrathfully recounts the tragedies that happen on black people in detail and vehemently points out that the meaningless propriety of the nation should be destroyed. Throughout his speech, he demonstrates the deep crime and ugliness that most Americans made and eagerly calls the equality and peace to all black people.
In the third paragraph, after using a mass of rhetorical question in the first two paragraphs, Frederick Douglass employs metaphor and contrast to emphasize the satire of this celebrations to black people. By using: “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”, he assimilates himself to “a man in fetters” and also assimilates the celebrations of Fourth July to “the grand illuminated temple of liberty”. At the same time, there is a kind of the comparison forming between “fetters” and “liberty”. What is the meaning of celebrations of Fourth July
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In the last paragraph, he mentioned the dark side of other countries in the world and finally states that “America reigns without a rival”. Instead of meaning of the how powerful or unique America it is, Douglass wryly illustrate how deeply pain that the black people are suffering which is much more painful than any other torturous people in other nations. What is worse, the pain of the black people is unknown to the white people who are celebrating their happiness. In this paragraph, Douglass even asks his listeners to do some research and then get the result, which makes his irony become much more