Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

Slaves were not taught how to read and write because education is power, and with power, slaves could escape. Frederick Douglass said that “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery with the power of education, and he wrote an autobiography, which shows the idea of freedom through the eyes of Frederick Douglass, and the connection between freedom and education. Douglass shows this through rhetorical devices and the elements of rhetoric. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave reveals that with education, freedom is attainable.

Whenever injustice exists in society, it becomes the responsibility of others to step forward in defense of the oppressed. If this action does not occur, then the injustice will remain and innocent people will suffer. In order to preserve equality, sometimes people must take a risk in order to reveal the truth and uphold justice. Individuals throughout history, such as the founding fathers, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., have faced this peril in the pursuit of freedom. In 1845, Frederick Douglass published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in order to do just that- to establish the truth behind slavery and advocate for freedom. In his narrative, Douglass uses diction, structure, imagery, and other

In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, he writes in depth about his life as a slave. His intent for the book is to abolish slavery. He targets the white Northern men by using the three rhetorical appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos, to convince his goal. He also portrays the religious aspect, in Christian values. Narrating his personal experiences with his masters and fellow slaves, he states reasons of the immorality of enslavement. Douglass argues that slavery ultimately dehumanizes slave owners and demonstrates that slavery is immoral.

In this excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass employs three distinct styles in each of the paragraphs. Paragraphs one and two have a somewhat similar style, while the style in paragraph three is drastically different. Douglass is released from his need to tell and simply shows us his internal dialogue in the third paragraph. The literary devices he uses to help make this contrast are distinct. Douglass moves away from an organized, intellectual style to a more lurching, frantic one. This change in styles is extremely effective in furthering Douglass’s rhetorical purpose, which is to evoke disgust in slavery. Douglass tells his story in the first two paragraph, but reveals the inner workings of his mind in paragraph three. This shows how being a slave impacted his psyche. Douglass shows his mind, one of a damaged, desperate slave. This is extremely effective. Douglass provides yet another window through which to look and discover horrors of slavery through the impact of it on the state of one’s mind.

In chapter seven of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass is finally aware of his approximate age, and is burdened with the thought of being a “slave for life.” At the age of 12, it is not very encouraging to be given the description of a “slave for life.” Douglass uses his newfound reading and writing skills to cleverly comprehend the book The Columbian Orator, and the speeches from the Catholic emancipation it contains, in his favor. The book Douglass discovers does a good job of supporting his invalidation of slavery as well as providing him with knowledge and reasonable arguments.

While the narrative’s purpose is mainly to describe the transformation from a slave to a free man, it is also to describe the transformation from a man into a slave. The passage from The Narrative and Life of Frederick Douglass depicts Douglass’s descent into the most brutal conditions of slavery and his reaffirmation of his desire to be free. Under the possession of Mr. Covey, Douglass finds himself to be a broken spirit confined to the bonds of slavery, though later transitions to describe the reigniting of his few expiring embers of freedom. The passage enforces his rage and aggression towards slavery, but the strength of the third paragraph also brings to life his desire for freedom and his willingness to act on the incentive.

Published in 1845, Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, is a historical account of his life that told of the challenges and obstacles that plagued the lives of slaves in pursuing freedom from injustice and persecution from white wealthy slaveowners. In particular, an excerpt titled “Learning to Read” shines a light on the tragic reality African Americans lived in every day during the 19th century. The circumstances surrounding the restriction of growth and development centered around the limited availability of education, or lack thereof. Frederick Douglass uses the Aristotelian appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos to build his credibility and connect with the audience on a more personal note, though he struggles with primarily focusing his paper by appealing to popularity. Nevertheless, he is successful in employing these strategies to tell a riveting memoir documenting his struggles in learning how to read and write to speak out against the injustices of slavery.

Noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in his self titled slave narrative addresses the indescribable sadness that the slaves were experiencing, which they portrayed through song. He intensely describes the emotions that he hears within the songs of the slaves. In the passage Douglass shows how the slaves believe that they feel, versus how they really feel, and he does this this by changing the tone throughout the passage. He uses these tones to make the reader fully feel the helplessness that the slaves feel and recognize the effects that slavery had on people.

In a time where African American have been deprived of rights, Frederick Douglass seeks to highlight the hardships faced by a slave to white Americans. In order to better get his point across Douglass utilizes a multitude of rhetorical devices, from chiasmus and parallelism to imagery and paradox. In some cases, he highlights the complexity if a subject and in others, he makes the point clearer to the reader by juxtaposing two ideas to emphasize the differences and underlying message through what ties them together. With the use of these devices backing his point he effectively appeals to his audience's pathos and logos which allows him to persuade his audience to open their eyes to their wrongdoings.

Jim Rohn had stated that “Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.” In the case of slaves, freedom gave access to wealth because it allowed them to own things. Freedom was a source of health because they would not be mistreated anymore, and it was a source of contentment to the slaves because it opened a whole new world where they didn’t have to listen to their masters. Freedom was also a miracle because people rarely have the opportunity to escape since they didn’t have education to aid them. Therefore, the beginning of freedom was education. For instance, Frederick Douglass had experienced the mistreatment, abuse, and limitations of a slave, but he has also felt the wealth, heath, and contentment of being free after he escaped using his knowledge that introduced him to freedom. As a result, Frederick Douglass decided used rhetoric and structure in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave to explain and prove the connection between freedom and education.

Abolitionist and freed slave, Frederick Douglass, recounts his life in his book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, to argue that slavery is and will always be a harmful institution. White Christian Americans in the North were his primary target to persuade join the abolitionist movement. Within his books he details several different arguments against slavery. Specifically, chapter nine shows how slavery is innately unnatural and is corrupting everything around it.

Slavery is a horrible condition. In the Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass tells his story of growing up as a slave and then becoming a freeman. Douglass speaks of the horrors of slavery and the beauty of freedom. Douglass uses figures of speech, diction, and repetition to convey his feelings of excitement, insecurity and loneliness on escaping from slavery and arriving in New York in 1838.

This primary source is an oration delivered by former slave Fredrick Douglass on July 5, 1852 in Rochester, N.Y. Fredrick Douglass, when “liberated” became an abolitionist, being a voice for those who could not speak. His background having been a slave significantly influences his viewpoint on the subject matter of freedom and liberty. His purpose in writing this speech was to “reveal the hypocrisy” that the United States was committing. Douglass was looking for a change in the country from being a country that proclaimed liberty and freedom to actually practicing liberty and freedom. The occasion was quite significant in that he gave the speech right after the annual Independence Day celebration. This enhances a substantial amount of pathos

When Douglass wrote his narrative, The Life of Frederick Douglass, slavery remained a prevalent practice throughout the U.S. He wrote it with the claim that slavery was horrible, hoping that, from the thoughts and experiences of a former slave, people would see the need to abolish it. However, Douglass did more than just convince people slavery was wrong. He was able to achieve a great amount of power through very effective techniques. Among these were simple, clear language and his own personal and formative experiences. His narrative will forever have a profound influence on anyone who reads it.

The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass can be referred to as a memoir and writing about the abolitionist movement of the life of a former slave, Fredrick Douglass. It is a highly regarded as the most famous piece of writing done by a former slave. Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer, statesman, orator and writer in the United States. Douglass believed in the equality of every individual of different races, gender or immigrants.