Fredrick Douglass was an American social reformer, writer, and abolitionist who was a slave for all of his childhood. He was one of the most important leaders during the movement of the African-American civil rights. Douglass wrote the narrative, "The life of Fredrick Douglass", to describe life in the perspective of a slave. Throughout Douglass's writing, the readers are able to see his feelings change throughout the narrative. For example, when Douglass escaped slavery, the readers saw the initial excitement that followed his escape, in which that excitement shortly disappeared. In the narrative, The life of Fredrick Douglass, Douglass incorporates figures of speech, repetition of phrases, and diction to demonstrate how he felt relieved, while also evoking a …show more content…
While writing to a friend in New York, Douglass mentions that he “felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions” (17). i.e. a. It is assumed that the hungry lions represent the slave owners, so Douglass is basically saying that he was able to be freed from those so called lions, which insinuates that he was therefore feeling relieved because he doesn’t have to deal with those “lions”. Moreover, Douglass also incorporates metaphors to go in-depth on his worries, as a former slave living in a free state. Douglass mentions an escaped slave in a foreign land, “whose inhabitants are legalized kidnappers”. 40) This quote represents a sense of fear in Douglass and also just free slaves in general, due to the fact that Douglass is comparing the slaveholders to kidnappers, in which it tells that slaveholders are capable of seizing free slaves and bringing them back to their previous state. Prior to Douglass' recent escape, Douglass is relieved that he was able to escape, but there is still a sense of distress, due to the fact, slaveholders have the ability to bring Douglass back to the unpleasant situation he was previously