Slavery in one word is described as corruption. It was the reason for the United States Civil War and for the lost of so many lives. In the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass describes the events of his life and how he was deprived of the natural rights. Frederick Douglass' message is that to a slave sometimes ignorance is bliss because the intelligence of knowing can be insanity because they have no power to control their lives. Slavery, however, does not only affect the morality of the slaves themselves but in the corruption of others around them. Douglass uses a variety of figurative language to convey that slavery destroys the slave, the slaveholder, and the institution of Christianity.
Douglass integrates metonymy and
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When Douglass is living with Master Hugh’s family, he sees for the first time a white person who treats him like a human being. Douglass uses metonymy to illustrate her dehumanization, an effect of the power of holding a slave: “Under [slavery’s] influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (Douglass 43). The words “tender heart” are an example of metonymy that alludes to the woman as a whole because she is known to be compassionate. As slavery integrates itself in his mistress’s life, her “lamb-like” nature is abraded and the “tiger-like fierceness” is the consequence of slavery. Douglass’ epiphany is that this corruption not only affects the slave but society as a whole. Douglass further develops corruption of morality through the use of parallelism. After Captain Anthony died, who was the clerk and superintendent of Colonel Lloyd’s farm, Douglass is