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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

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Mencia Barnuevo
Race & the Photographic Image
05/10/2016

The start of lynching as a recreational phenomenon has quite a few potential origins, but it appears to be chiefly affiliated to the policies of equity in the late 1800’s up until the mid 1900’s. Despite the “birthplace” of lynching, these vicious procedures undergone by the African Americans from the whites, were violations to their human rights. However, these tormenting, maiming, lynchings were jubilant presentations for white people, frequently with white adolescents too, observing and enjoying by their parents side. These “spectacles,” among with the act of slavery, soon became common, insinuating the great extent of dehumanisation at the time. The origin of this brutality, as …show more content…

On one hand, the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is a narrative of a slave attempting to become free. On the other hand, it is a narrative of how African Americans are mentally and physically turned into slaves—moreover how white men manifest their superiority. Firstly, Frederick was separated from his mother as a young child, leaving no time for the two to build a relationship; “I received the tidings of my mother’s death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (Douglass, 6). Secondly, Edward Covey, one of Fredericks slaveholders, strategies in establishing his dominance was through making him work relentlessly and punishing him when he felt necessary—which almost never was necessary. Frederick understands how slaveholders can make their slaves feel inferior and degrade them through physical power however is intrigued with the idea of how slaveholders dominate their slaves minds. Hale similarly explains how slaveholders would do all in their power to keep their slaves from being educated so they could not in a sense humanise themselves and become enlightened. Correspondingly, Frederick narrates that he soon began to become deprived of implacable parts of himself, such as his light heartedness and his determination to read and write. “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass, 10.5). Frederick had officially hit rock bottom, his mind was now his

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Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

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Frederick Douglass was able to persuade his audience that the institution of slavery was not only morally reprehensible but also detrimental to the well-being of both slaves and slaveholders. Douglass uses rhetoric and compelling arguments. Frederick Douglass was an influential figure who highlighted the physical and psychological abuse suffered by slaves. He showed that this abuse left them with emotional and physical scars that lasted a lifetime. At the same time, Douglass argued that slaveholders were morally corrupted by owning other human beings.

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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass uses a juxtaposition of bread and education and through ethos and metaphor in that comparison Douglass reflects on the fundamental base of slavery of denying mental and physical freedom to an individual and also furthers his abolitionist argument. Frederick tells of when he was a young boy, his master’s wife stopped teaching him how to read and write, so he traded young boys on the street bread for reading lessons, which was how he learned how to read. In this passage, he uses a myriad of literary and rhetorical techniques, including an example of ethos. In the pages before, Douglass discussed the harsh treatment of him by his new masters in Baltimore, but still gives credibility

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Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was born a slave and later went down to become known as an anti-slavery activist, author, and one of the most important black American leaders of the nineteenth century. Throughout the span of his life, his three biographies help shape the minds of Americans and open the eyes of those unable to see the cruelty and injustice of slavery. Often unable to state directly what he means, Douglass incorporates rhetoric and metaphor to intensify the difficulties of being a slave. For example, in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he says "I suppose I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely escaped them" (Beers and Odell 467); this sentence is a metaphor, stating that Mr.

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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography written in 1845 on his account of the experiences as an African American slave and the prejudices experienced to demonstrate social influence for the abolitionist movement. His story accounts his involvement as a child on a plantation, and then his experiences moving into the city until attaining freedom within the North. These experiences were often used as social rhetoric by Douglass to appeal towards a southern society who are inherently prejudice and to gain movement for abolitionism, which was at its basis of infrastructure. As such, this essay analyzes the rhetoric through a specific passage on its word modulation which allows for structural composition open to various

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An anecdote is a story or experience found in many articles and essays. They are often used to convey an idea or opinion in a more personal way. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, anecdotes are a common tool Douglass uses to prove his points and are seen throughout the book. In the narrative, Douglass shares his firsthand experiences of all the evils of slavery. He has seen and been a victim of coldhearted whippings and beatings as well as the mental toll slavery takes on both slaves and slaveowners.

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Douglass said; "I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!" (Douglass, pg. 105.) Douglass viewed himself not as a person, as an object. Expressing his weaknesses he’s developed by being a slave to the audience showed them he wasn’t just a field hand, Douglass was a person with emotions and feelings.

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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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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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