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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Devices

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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a very powerful and important piece of work when it comes to understanding the dehumanization and harsh treatment of the slaves in Pre-Civil War United States. Frederick Douglass uses crucial detail in his narrative to make the reader understand just how badly the slaves were truly treated and how profoundly unequal slaves were from everyone else during this time. Douglass uses many rhetorical strategies throughout his narrative in order to really shape how the readers are going to interpret the narrative, and to allow the reader to develop an understanding of his major theme of dehumanization. He uses detailed descriptions of brutal beatings, repeatedly mentions the contrast between the white citizens and black …show more content…

The usage of these rhetorical strategies in his narrative really helps to emphasize the dehumanization of slaves and indubitably forms Douglass’s opinion for slave owners, as well as slavery as a whole.
One of the biggest rhetorical strategies used by Douglass throughout his narrative is showing the comparison between common white people and the slaves. On page one he states, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” This sentence is used when Frederick Douglass is trying to recall his age in the beginning of his narrative, and shows how basic human rights, even as little as slaves knowing their own birthdays, was taken away in order to keep slaves ignorant. Not letting a slave know their own age was a device the slave owner would use in order to keep a slave feeling inadequate as a normal human being. Another strategy used by the

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In the urgent yet angry speech given by Frederick Douglass on July 4th, 1852 in Rochester, New York, Douglass expounds upon the comparison between slaves and free humans. The intended audience of this speech, consisting mostly of free white men, allowed for Douglass to express and spread his abolitionist ideas. Douglass draws numerous comparisons between life as a slave and life as a free man, while using rhetorical devices to convey his message of equality for all. Through the use of metaphors to describe the unimaginable daily life in slavery, Douglass expounds upon his call for equality; on a day supposed to represent freedom for all, not just the few elite whites. The comparison between “bleeding children of sorrow this day” connect and

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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 Rhetorical Analysis Essay In the book the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass readers are given a walk through of his life dating back to when he was a slave up until the point when he became a free man. Throughout the novel, one of the primary things Douglass attributes his freedom to is education. “Literacy [was his] ticket to freedom from the enslavement of his mind and body.” Learning to read gave Douglas an incentive to seek his freedom.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Rhetorical Analysis By Migion Booth Social reformer, Frederick Douglass was an African American man who decamped from slavery. He has drafted several books including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Mr. Douglass writes about his perspicacity as a slave. Mr. Douglass repeatedly uses paradox, imagery, and parallelism to display how slavery was inhuman and heartbroken.

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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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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.

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Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).

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Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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Douglass tells about his own childhood and how his father might have been a slaveholder. He explains

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Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

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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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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.

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In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and wants to eliminate the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.

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“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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