ipl-logo

Rhetorical Analysis Of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

468 Words2 Pages

Rather than raising the volume of your voice, you should improve your argument with the methods of persuasion.Frederick Douglass’ memoir, titled “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, divulges the brutal truth about slavery and the conditions he and other slaves experienced while on slave farms. Not only does Frederick Douglass talk about the harsh reality of slavery, but shares his moments of hope and belief that one day all colors will unite and slavery will come to its end, to have freedom for all. By using proper English, advanced vocabulary, explicit imagery, and overwhelming amounts of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass triumphantly managed to get his message sent directly to his audience. Ethos is when someone, the persuader, uses their credibility and character to convince a certain audience to go along with their opinion.Within the Narrative, Douglass uses this type of appeal to gain the …show more content…

Douglass always tried to learn how to read and finally succeeded. Now that he knows how to read, Douglass has became addicted to reading.“I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write” (20). “The paper came, and I read it from week to week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds--its scathing denunciations of slaveholders-- its faithful exposures of slavery-- and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution-- sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!” (53). Now that Douglass has the advantage of reading and the power knowledge, he can now avoid the problem of being accused of not knowing what he is saying since he speaks and reads the English language formally. Douglass utilizes this technique to relate to the white educated audience, this also makes him seem like

Show More
Related

Frederick Douglass Slave Speech Rhetorical Analysis

249 Words | 1 Pages

Douglass’s descriptions of the slave trade were extremely vivid, from the details of how American’s viewed slaves, to the sounds of whips cracking and how a woman was encumbered by the weight of the child she carried and the chains that she wore. These details would bring readers to know what it was like to be in a slaves shoes at that time. His speech is driven by first had accounts of the degradations of slavery and would not be credible if it wasn’t for this fact. I believe that Douglass’s tone throughout the speech was hopeful, he enforced the cause of the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society with the hopes of making the United States more complete when slavery ended.

Read More

Rhetorical Irony In Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

101 Words | 1 Pages

When slavery was abolished in 1865, it was a critical turning point in the journey towards equality for African Americans. Prior to the eradication of slavery writers like Frederick Douglass sought to free millions of slaves in America. While slavery was a well-known and growing problem in the south, it wasn’t as widely recognized in the north. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave‎ Douglass recounts his experiences and tribulations as a slave. In the narrative Douglass effectively uses rhetorical imagery, antithesis, and irony in order to expose the harsh reality of slavery during the 19th century.

Read More

Process Analysis In Frederick Douglass By This Time, My Little Master Thomas

865 Words | 4 Pages

Later in his writing, Douglass states, “As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but no ladder upon which to get out” (Douglass 2). This is another instance where Douglass exhibits his use of narration in his writing

Read More

The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Devices

235 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

What Are The Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And The Awakening

1613 Words | 7 Pages

After eavesdropping on his white owner as to why education was forbidden for slaves, Douglass came to a shocking realization. “These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments…, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought… I now understood… the white man’s power to enslave the black man… From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.” The imagery in this excerpt helps discuss how deeply the words affected Douglass and how, in turn, these words allowed him to come to the most life-changing moment of his life.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Slavery By Frederick Douglass

309 Words | 2 Pages

Besides, Douglass has utilized the ironic tool in the paragraph of his essay. For instance, although he lived as a slave at the time of his learning process, he explains to the readers that he brought bread when doing one part of chores so he could exchange for a reading lesson from local children before his return. He acknowledges: "I felt much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 26), which is ironic because Douglass himself would probably be in a worse position. Moreover, this kind of irony also presented at the top of the essay, Douglass called himself a slave which reminded the audiences that slaves did not happen in some faraway land; it happened in America – the land of freedom that can also be the land of slavery. Additionally, it is hard to believe for the white American that in the mid-1880s, a black person could even learn to read and less write a book (Shmoop Editorial Team).

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Frederick Douglass

347 Words | 2 Pages

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

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Frederick Douglass

828 Words | 4 Pages

Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. Introducing his subject, Douglass reminds his audience about the dark side of America for slaves, in sharp, surprising contrasts with the apparent progressivity within the nation. He first notices “the disparity,” that “the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and deaths to me,” as an African-American former slave. It is surprising for the audience to hear that the Sun does not bring him any prosperity, that the Sun, the source of life on earth, brings him destruction.

Read More

Frederick Douglasss Hope For Freedom Rhetorical Analysis

1127 Words | 5 Pages

Frederick Douglass’s Hope for Freedom Hope and fear, two contradictory emotions that influence us all, convicted Frederick Douglass to choose life over death, light over darkness, and freedom over sin. Douglass, in Chapter ten, pages thirty-seven through thirty-nine, of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, utilizes various rhetorical techniques and tone shifts to convey his desperation to find hope in this time of misery and suffering. Mr. Covey, who Douglass has been sent to by his master to be broken, has succeeded in nearly tearing all of Douglass’s dreams of freedom away from him. To expound on his desires to escape, Douglass presents boats as something that induces joy to most but compels slaves to feel terror. Given the multiple uses of repetition, antithesis, indirect tone shifts, and various other rhetorical techniques, we can see Douglass relaying to his audience the hardships of slavery through ethos, the disheartening times that slavery brings, and his breakthrough of determination to obtain freedom.

Read More

Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay

879 Words | 4 Pages

In (1) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass addressed to (2) white Americans unaware of the consequences of slavery, (3) Douglass (4) appeals to empathy by presenting his story in order to (5) promote the abolitionist movement and to (7) illustrate (8) the harsh realities of enslavement. Douglass strengthens the abolitionist movement by presenting the irony in the lifestyle and values of Christian slaveholders. When clarifying his point of view towards Christianity, Douglas claims, “so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked.” pg.119. The author uses diction to exploit slaveholders religion and how it was used negatively and contrary to what Douglas believes

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

864 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

935 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

Analysis Of Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass

560 Words | 3 Pages

“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass is a personal narrative which describes a specific time in his childhood when he was learning to read and write. Born as a slave in the pre-Civil War south, Douglass was not expected to be literate. However, through strong ambition, Douglass overcame restrictions and stereotypes placed on slaves and taught himself to read and write. Later in his life, Frederick Douglass wrote down this story in his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. Today, students and adults can enjoy this narrative on how he overcame the struggles of learning how to read and write.

Read More

Essay On Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

973 Words | 4 Pages

Thus, in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass is able to represent slaves as dehumanized property with the sole purpose of working their masters land until the day they die. Douglass also successfully represents slaves as intelligent people who wish to learn and begin to see the world for themselves, not through the eyes of a slave master. Douglass illustrated both sides of the spectrum of slave life, being deprived of knowledge and having, although against the rules, access to material to learn, to provide a distinction between how slaves are handled and how they truly

Read More

Rhetorical Devices In Frederick Douglass

631 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

Open Document