Imagine that you were born as a slave and you constantly suffered or saw someone you love suffer. Fredrick Douglass wrote a book called Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, which was about his experience with slavery. In the Narrative of the Life of Fedrick Douglass, Fedrick Douglass wants to change his reader's beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by telling about physical abuse and awful living conditions of slavery. To begin with, Douglass writes about when physical abuse is involved is when he witnesses his aunt gets whipped. In the text, it states, "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush...", (Douglass, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8) This can change the thought of saying that all men are created equal because Douglass showed that slave owners never showed mercy to their slaves.
Dallin Jones C. Ogimoto American Literature February 15, 2023 Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Appeals Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery on February 14, 1818. He later escaped slavery in 1838. Frederick Douglass is most commonly known for his narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. The purpose of this narrative was to uphold the principle of freedom as an inalienable human right and to prove how slavery was dehumanizing. Fredrick Douglass neatly uses ethos, logos, and pathos to promote his purpose, but pathos is by far the most effective due to the correlations between him and the reader.
On July 5th 1852 Fredrick Douglass gave a speech to the anti-slavery society to show that all men and woman are equal no matter what. Douglass uses ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech to make look reasonable. Douglass demonstrates ethos by speaking in first person that of which he had experience slavery: "I was born amid such sights and scenes"(Douglass 4). When Douglass spoke these words to the society, they knew of his personal knowledge and was able to depend on him has a reliable source of information. The anti-slavery society listening to his every word, considering that Douglass spoke with integrity, knowledge and emotions.
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.
Douglass Rhetorical Genius The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, a autobiography describes the life of a young slave in the 1800’s. Douglass accurately illustrates the inhuman practices of slavery through rhetorical devices, such as: imagery, irony, and anecdotes. Douglass employs the use of imagery throughout the book to depict the horrors of slave life and the injustice it delivers. The evils of slavery are seen not only in the accounts of the beatings recorded, but also by the cruel working environments described. “About three o’clock of that day, I broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb.
In the book, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, we learn what it was like to be a slave in his time. We learn of the brutality and the horrible life imposed on the slaves by the slaveowners. Altogether, the book is very good at teaching us about the brutality, but who did he write this for, and why did he write it? Also, what did Douglass want the reader to take away after reading the book, and in what specific way did he recreate his time as a slave to convey his message? Overall, Douglass’s book has deeper meaning that what it was like to be a slave, and his choice of words, sentence structure, and imagery is very specific is a key example of this.
To defend his thesis, along with objective information told to the reader, Douglass appeals to the emotions of the reader to incite anger and rage from the mistreatment of the oppressed, and getting the audience to feel anything besides impassiveness is a great way to get your message
Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Doubleday, 1973. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas is Frederick Douglass’ autobiography that demonstrates an insightful journey from slavery to freedom through his experiences. Douglass’ journey is not only a literal one, but a figurative battle accomplished by both mentally and physically freeing himself.
Education Determines Your Destination Education is the light at the end of the tunnel, when Frederick uses it he discovers hope. In the story the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick goes through many struggles on his path to freedom, showing us the road from slavery to freedom. At the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave in both body and mind. When the book ends, he gets both his legal freedom and frees his mind. The path to freedom was not easy, but it got clearer when he got an education.
Frederick Douglass points out in his book,” Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass,” that slavery was not only negative for slaves but also the slaveholders. The slaveholders had big responsibilities by keeping their reputation, keeping the slaves ignorant, and it also turned good people into cruel human beings. The negative effects on slavery had an impact on everyone involved throughout the process. The slaveholders had to keep a good reputation so they could keep buying slaves. Often masters would whip their slaves.
From reading the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass. Slaves were terrified of thinking about escaping from their slave owners. They didn’t want to think about what might happen to them if they were caught. The slaves in the South during the 1800’s were precluded from thinking about escaping because they feared what might happen to them if their master found out. Some slaves who ran away from their slave owners were not happy when their slave owner found them because they would receive punishments they don't even want to think about.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography in which Douglass goes into detail about growing up as a slave and then escaping for a better life. During the early-to-mid 1800s, the period that this book was written, African-American slaves were no more than workers for their masters. Frederick Douglass recounts not only his personal life experiences but also the experiences of his fellow slaves during the period. This book was aimed at abolitionists, so he makes a point to portray the slaves as actual living people, not the inhuman beings that they are treated as. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slaves are inhumanly represented by their owners and Frederick Douglass shines a positive light
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Dating back to early America, the impact of trade escalated from natural resources to the key usage of human beings to cultivate these desired products. The object of slavery was one of the supreme factors towards the growth of the American economy and how it thrived. The cruel and arguable dictatorship that was forced into the institution was and still is unfathomable. Even though the United States government saw the matter of slavery as a contentious affair amongst Americans, it was never thoroughly handled but laid aside to deal with through temporary resolutions like the Missouri and ⅗ Compromise.
Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is a brutally honest portrayal of slavery’s dehumanizing capabilities. By clearly connecting with his audience’s emotions, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices, including anecdotes and irony, to argue the depravity of slavery. Douglass clearly uses anecdotes to support his argument against the immorality of slavery. He illustrates different aspects of slavery’s destructive nature by using accounts of not only his own life but others’ alsoas well.
The power of education is a main theme within A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass 's experiences lead him to recognize its great power and to believe that education is a key in our life. It has the power to open all doors while providing us with several opportunities. Education makes the difference; it expands the human mind since the more we know the more enlightened we are. It makes us free and it avoid us to be enslaved, too.
