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Rhetorical Analysis Of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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The general argument made by Frederick Douglass in chapters one and two in his book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is that slavery is damaging and horrific. More specifically, Douglass argues that slavery is dehumanizing, evil, and has damaging effects on both the slaves and owners. To effectively convey his message, Douglass used certain rhetorical strategies such as appeals to ethics, imagery, and biblical allusions.
One of the major rhetorical strategies Douglass uses is appeals to ethics. This strategy helps him in describing the horrific effects of slavery by establishing credibility and trust with the reader. The first time this can be visibly seen is in the opening paragraphs of the book while he …show more content…

One such instance where imagery is used is in the opening paragraphs, where Frederick is describing his family. While describing his mom, he said “She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsy Bailey, both colored and quite.” By describing his family in this way, but not himself, we can visualize what he may have looked like if we didn’t have resources such as the internet. Another instance in which imagery is utilized is while Douglass is describing his master’s wife. When discussing her attitude toward female slaves, Douglass said that “she [was] never better pleased than when she [saw] them under the lash.” This statement makes us not just read about the hate, but makes the reader visualize the hate by seeing her smiling face while the slaves are suffering simply because of her jealousness of the female slaves being used to create more slaves and for her husband’s pleasure. A third use of imagery is clear when Hester was being whipped. Douglass described it in detail when he said “he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor.” This is one of the most powerful uses of imagery within the first two chapters because it clearly and plainly shows the violent, horrid, brutal effects of

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Rhetorical Analysis for ‘The Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass’ Fredrick Douglass’s influential experiences recorded in ‘The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass’, reveals his woeful hardships as a slave, which he overcomes with his unfaltering desire to become an educated and ultimately free man. He apprises readers of the monstrous realities of slavery whilst providing a silver lining of hope to light the path to freedom. Throughout the entirety of the book, FD’s riveting diction accentuates his forthright opinions and detestation toward the vicious, pitiless, and blood-thirsty slaveholders with words such as “wicked”, “horrid” and “cowardly”. To slaveholders, education was a threat; to FD it was a sanctuary.

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Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.

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While learning to read and write ultimately helped him escape, it caused him suffering beforehand. More thorough understanding of slavery made him angrier with his masters, less satisfied with complacency, and more anguished at his position. What he read was liberating and crushing simultaneously, and he detailed this ironic duality in describing his anguished emotions at the time. The writings themselves also prompted discussion of the irony in hypocritically oppressive slave owners who claim to be Americans for freedom and Christians for equality but force the opposites on slaves. Describing his stressful emotions, which happened to be situationally ironic, creates an effective emotional appeal to sympathy similar to the childhood chapters.

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‘’ The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces.’’ (page 38). Douglass appeals to the audience by using imagery in a visualizing way, to give the audience a way to imagine it in their head, to see the hurtful things that went on. The use of imagery from Douglass displayed how slavery was heartbroken. Along with paradox and imagery Douglass uses parallelism to describe how slavery was inhuman by expressing how slaves was frequently whipped.

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At a young age, Douglass witnessed his Aunt Hester being horrifyingly whipped by his slave master; Captain Anthony. He explains that viewing this brutal site made him feel as if he were a witness to/ participant in this evil action. He goes on to say the first time he ever saw this inhumane abuse introduced him to the true hellish world of slavery. After firing their first overseer, Anthony hires another overseer by the name of Mr. Gore. One day, Mr. Gore brutally whipped slave by the name of Demby.

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might be laid in the gashes” (16). This powerful use of imagery makes the audience realize the brutality from the slaveholders. With Douglass being only a child, it invokes an emotional response from the audience because it demonstrates that these cruelties happened even to the young and defenseless. Douglass mentions that children “Were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs, they would come and devour the mush” (16). This parallelism is associating the starving children to a filthy animal.

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Frederick Douglass’ purpose in writing his narrative was to inform the mainly the northerners and other people with agency, of the horrors that encompass slavery. He shocks his audience by introuducing himself as a man who doesn’t know his age, something so miniscule, yet gargantuan as it goes further to illustrate the dehumanization that encompasses the institution of slavery. As the narrative progresses, the theme of religion begins to emerge, specifically christianity. It then becomes apparent that there is a great disparity between the religion that slaveholders practice and the religion that most people are accustomed to. One is the slaveholding religion, which in nature is oppressive and the other form is simply religion, inherently

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As he shares his experiences he helps the audience feel the shame of being a slave, as every slave had. Douglass talks about Colonel Lloyd’s sons and son-in-laws saying, “All of these lived at the Great House Farm, and enjoyed the luxury of whipping the servants when they pleased… I have seen Winder (One of Colonel Lloyd’s son-in-laws) make one of the house servant stand off from him a suitable distance to be touched with the end of his whip, and at every stroke raise great ridges upon his back” (Douglass 34). Sharing this experience and detail shows how cruel whites were to the

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Throughout American history, many sources display the era of slavery, but little of them exhibit slavery as well as a book called, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” This book represents an accurate first-hand account of slavery that allows historians to analyze the era of slavery today. According to this narrative, there were many dehumanizing aspects of slavery, which include physical torture and forcing inhumane lifestyle onto slaves. Many of these scenarios of torture were demonstrated in expansive, horrific detail throughout the narrative. Although slaves were immensely dehumanized, this historical piece humanizes Frederick Douglass along with African Americans as this narrative is a marvelous piece of literary art with many

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To show his perception on the very cruel slaveholders, Douglass uses a multitude of adjectives to create an image in his reader’s mind, while also using metaphors to better comprehend the situation. For example, Douglass stated, “No words, no tears, no prayers, for his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose.” By using this metaphor, Frederick Douglass made the reader question how one could be so cruel to another human being. By visualizing one whipping another without any guilt, it makes the audience understand the inhumanity of slavery. In total, this metaphor creates a agonizing image in the reader’s

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The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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He truly tapped into the reader’s emotions to allow them a deeper connection with the story. To see the way that the slaveholder would dehumanize the slave to the point of seeing the slave as just a piece of property was truly heartbreaking. It was at moments such as this that the reader saw a glimpse of the mood, tone and theme. Douglass makes clear his tone of understanding, the theme of both the slave and the slaveholder being affected, and the mood of the reader being

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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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In his Narrative, Douglass recalls being woken up by his aunt who was “… [tied] up to a joist, and [whipped] upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood,” (22). Living a happy life does not include occasional beatings and the fear looming around. The romantic image is false since slaves did not have positive feelings when they were separated from their family, or when they were beaten until the slave owner saw blood. The songs that slaves sang revealed the false, romantic image of slavery. People thought they sang because they were content.

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Frederick Douglass writes his narrative to educate the reader on the horrors of southern slavery. Douglass writes with the purpose of turning the reader against slavery and fight for abolishment. Throughout Frederick Douglass’s narrative he crafts figurative language such as imagery, repetition, and similes to shed light on the horrors of slavery and to get people to fight against slavery. To give the reader a detailed picture Frederick Douglass utilizes imagery. Douglass uses imagery in great detail when describing the beating of Aunt Hester, Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked.

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