Rhetorical Devices In 'Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass'

Well known slave author and orator, Frederick Douglass, in his narrative, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” alters the way people view slavery. Douglass’s purpose is to convince the audience that slavery should be abolished. He creates a haunting tone in order to persuade the readers that slavery is wrong. He uses many real life accounts of horrifying instances of beatings, murders and torture to prove that slavery is unjust.

One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick

To start off, Douglass uses the rhetorical appeal, logos, to denounce the actions of the slave owners. Douglass describes the characteristics of a cruel overseer, Mr. Severe. “He died very soon after… and he died as he lived, uttering… bitter curses and horrid oaths” (Douglass, 19). The contrast in the two words “died” and “lived” also relates to logic, or rather the lack of logic, because his horrible actions caused him to die a horrible death. It shows that slaveholders are hard-headed on their attitudes on slavery, which uncovers the lack of compassion displayed by the slave owners. To build on, the word “oath” signifies having Christian values. Typically, Christians take oaths to never lie and to speak the truth, yet slave owners allow themselves to lie to their own beliefs when they treat slaves as if they were not human. Slave owners justify the way they act, by dehumanizing slaves and treating them as animals or property. Furthermore, Mrs. Auld, the wife of a slave owner, demonstrates how slavery rots the soul of slave owners. She starts out teaching young Douglass how to read and write and then becomes just like all the other corrupted slave owners. “The tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (Douglass, 34). In the quote, Douglass uses an antithesis varying in words such as, “tender” and “stone”. Contrasting words appeal to logos, because this evidence helps justify the argument that slavery transforms slave owners, in this case, Mrs. Auld. He also uses animals “lamb” and “tiger” to emphasize the similarities of animals and slaves at this time. It can also relate to

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.

When Douglass was a young boy, he witnessed for the first time a slave getting whipped, Douglass's first encounter was of extreme cruelty that slaveholders can have. The slave receiving the whipping is Douglass' Aunt Hester. By witnessing this Douglass sees that slaves are treated no better than animals, they lived in continuous fear of being beaten if they did not behave. The issue of freedom is here as well. Do these animals have more freedom then themselves, it seems so. The slave owners dehumanized the slaves with the power of the whip, showing the horrors of traditional slavery and property they have over slaves.

In the story he talks of how the enslaver were criminals and they stole the people from Africa and took them to america were they were slave even though didn't even do anything.They still took them and he feels if they were stolen and the enslavers were wrong for take them and.Treating them like animals see how terrible it was the meanest condition he realized how bad it was and wonder if the slave were thinking that they rethread be animals so then would know they were slaves.Then be human and know they are slaves.So they would live in the misery of being a slave

Douglass’s one of the main goal was to send out the messages about the injustice they were facing, through the narrative. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, he started his writing by introducing himself. Surprisingly, he did not have much to say about his identity. As he further said, he didn’t have any idea about who he was and when he was born. Furthermore, he compared the life of the slaves to the life of animals such as horse. According to Douglass, slaves were treated as an animals and were equally educated as them. When we think about the problems that Douglass addressed, the problems were within the slaves. Due to the lack of education and knowledge, slaves were powerless and were

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is going to be one of my all-time favorite literatures to read. It show us the horror of slavery and most importantly it shows the people of his time, a vivid and very moving account of the gruesome nature of antebellum slavery while highlighting the courage of one man struggle affect it had and the weight of injustice carries. I knew who Mr. Douglass was, and I had a very limited view of his life. But his narrative speaks so much volume. You can see from the very start of his narrative, Mr. Douglass uses an authoritative tone of voice while also giving us a logical analysis of every account of slavery he had from his earliest memories from childhood until the time he finally escape from slavery, or that of the one of others slaves he choose to tell. It is literately impossible for anyone of any race to read and fully comprehend Mr. Douglass interpretation of slavery without having an emotional out pull because of the sickening horror of slavery he brilliantly

Frederick Douglass was a well known African-American writer, statesman, reformer, and abolitionist who wrote an autobiography called the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.”When he was about ten years old, he found himself wanting to learn to read, even though it was illegal for slaves during that time. He did know that he wasn't supposed to learn to read, but fear did not stop him. Douglass’ education motivated him to enlighten others.

What Marie-Bernier presents here is the idea that Douglass’s writing is intensely complex,especially from multiple critical perspectives. On the surface level, it is definitely influential—and this claim does not refute that significance. However, his writing is much deeper than that. Itis also the product of a masculinist worldview in which Douglass subvertly subjugates women ashis racial group is likewise suppressed.The organization of the book reveals the rhetorical intent latent throughout Douglass’swriting. The first four chapters are immediate appeals to pathos, pulling at the heartstrings ofreaders by evoking the struggles that happened to Douglass as a child. Furthermore, most ofthese conflicts center on identity, such as Douglass’s speculations about who his father is. Thesechapters expose the basics of “the problem” of slavery. When Douglass is moved to Baltimorefor the next three chapters, he learns how to read, and this new skill introduces him to abolition,“the solution.” Chapter 8 and 9 reveal the capitalistic nature with which slavers treat slaves,especially in the market. While this can be seen as an extension of the problem at hand, it is acomparatist approach, showing readers that the problem is multi-faceted and wide-spread, if notuniversal for the nation. The last two chapters involve Douglass applying the “solution” andfighting back against the capitalistic system of slavery. In doing so, despite obvious adversity, hesucceeds in personal freedom and begins to use his rhetorical skills as a weapon against theentire system of slavery. From a rhetorical stance, the book’s

The two most important themes that shape Frederick Douglass’s life in An American Slave by Frederick Douglass are Slavery and Knowledge. When Douglass was a slave, he had no knowledge that there was anything other than what he had. When he began to learn, he became aware of the inequality that he was living in. Slavery and Knowledge have an inverse relationship. A man is put into slavery by depriving him of the knowledge that there is anything more than what he has. Once a man has gained knowledge of an injustice, he can never be truly enslaved.

For this point, Douglass tells the reader a story about how he came under the power of a new slave owning white woman. He talks about how he was the first slave she had ever owned and how she even amazed him with how kind she was. He goes on to say that he could not believe a white person, let alone a white woman would be so kind to someone who was a slave and how she was unlike any other white person he had ever met. Unfortunately, as in most cases when it comes to power, when she recognized her power over her new slaves, she also turned into an abusive slave owner. Douglass included this story to show how the power that slaveholders have over slaves, corrupted them and lead to them mistreating their slaves. In a quote from the book, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage…”(Douglass 28). This story shows how even the kindest of people, under the guise of slavery, could become the most horrific monsters. By showing the people who are unaware of slavery’s effects, how it corrupts people with good hearts, he is further pushing people to join his side in abolishing slavery. This story not only speaks about how slavery corrupts but also human nature. How when one group comes to power over another group and they have no reason to treat that group well,

Many in the book desire to receive or grant physical freedom, yet a higher problem remains. Slaves, and ultimately the majority of American society as a whole, were in need of a spiritual liberation from serious moral degradation caused by a denial of Christian principles of love and faith in favor of economic interest and prejudice. Slaves had lost the ability to effectively self-govern due to a lack of education and sincere kindness. According to the author, human beings are owed freedom and equality due to their nature.

July 5th, 1852 in Rochester, New York in the Corinthian Hall, a speech was to be given on America’s freedom.

The United States was founded on freedom and gave everyone a sense of equality, peace, and unity. Yet, there was slavery and dehumanization. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass focuses on the dehumanization and the inequality presented upon the slaves. It gives us an insight into the power imbalance between the slave and the slaveholder. Slaves were not considered human and was thought of as nothing which resulted in the slave owners not feeling bad about the actions they took. The most common relationship between a slave and its slavemaster is obedience and violence. Douglass has experiences the whipping and the beating first handed with himself and others around him but he shows how the mental effect of slavery are the most damaging than being physically hurt.