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Draft of a rhetorical analysis
Draft of a rhetorical analysis
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Throughout the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass uses plenty of rhetorical devices to dramatize the events of his life and reveal the truth of slavery to his readers. In one particular chapter, chapter 7, which contains an event that could be considered the turning point of Frederick Douglass’s life, Douglass fully uses his range of rhetorical ability. Although Sophia Auld’s descent into cruelty could be seen as a negative event in Douglass’s life, her actions indirectly led to the awareness of his situation through literacy, and eventually his freedom; both explained by Frederick Douglass through his analytical tone and extensive use of rhetorical devices.
Frederick begins this chapter by describing the drastic
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changes taken on by his mistress, Sophia Auld, who gave Frederick the “inch” spoken of, teaching him how to read. She started out with the temperament of a generous and kind woman, who Frederick admired, and it was during this time period when she taught Frederick how to read.
However, once her husband, Hugh Auld, found out about her teachings, he grew angry with her, and that moment was the turning point of her disposition. In this moment, when Sophia realized she had given the “inch” to Frederick, slavery corrupted her and tore her down to the raw animalistic nature exhibited by human beings in positions of power. In fact, society accepted this warped mindset of slave owners so naturally that Frederick believed it to be “at least necessary for her to have some training in the exercise of irresponsible power” (p. 22). This understatement emphasizes the fact that corruption was so widespread that there should be some form of training for this kind of behavior to maker her qualified to be treating him in such a way. It connects her demonic transformation to the “normal behavior” of society during this time, contrasting against the morals of modern society, in which this form of cruelty towards human beings shocks audiences around the world. Extending this connection to wild animals, Frederick …show more content…
Douglass further explains her changes through the description “the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (p. 22). Lambs are typically more domestic, tame, and controlled animals that cause little harm, contrasting harshly against the wild, vicious, and dangerous tiger. Using this extended simile allows Douglass to further explain the specific behavior his mistress had taken on by creating a visual connection for the reader. Her change in this chapter causes her to think incredibly differently, changing her focus from Frederick to herself. To explain this aspect of her transformation, Douglass using anaphora in “She now commenced to practise her husband’s precepts. She finally became ever more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better,” (p. 22). Anaphora emphasizes the attention Sophia places on herself. She becomes more conscious as to the fact that she gave Frederick the “inch”, causing Frederick’s taking of the “ell”. This also rhetorically defines the large role she plays in the storyline of Douglass’s life by giving him the first piece to the puzzle of freedom. After Sophia’s change in temperament, Frederick became determined to learn how to read and write so he could be more aware of the happenings around him.
Frederick managed to get hold of a book called “The Columbian Orator”, which showed Frederick the outside perspective of slavery. Douglass explains that in this book, “the whole argument in behalf of slavery was brought forward by the master, all of which was disposed of by the slave” (p. 23). This use of antithesis places the reader in the mind of Frederick Douglass, comparing the situation of slavery and its beliefs between the slave and his master. Frederick finds the relatability between this book and his own situation by realizing the only way that he can gain freedom is through outwitting his master, and disposing of the chains that have held him back since birth. From this point forward, he had total awareness of the horrors of slavery and its immorality. He finds his literacy to now be almost a curse to him, now overly conscious, and more uncomfortable in his enslaved position. With this new information, Douglass’s need to escape increased in strength and clouded his thoughts. Douglass says that these words reach him because he often “gave tongue to interesting thoughts of [his] own soul, which had frequently flashed through [his] mind, and died away for want of utterance,” (p. 24). This personification of these thoughts highlights the deeper yearning of his soul to be free from the restraints of slavery. His
newfound knowledge finally codifies his ideas about the inhumanity of slavery and allows him to finally accept his own thoughts. However, now that Frederick accepted these thoughts, he could not rid of them. They haunted his every waking moment, and filled his dreams, so that “[He] saw nothing without seeing it, [he] heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it,” (p. 24). Paralleling these phrases within this statement creates a form of repetition, echoing the effect that the thoughts had within Frederick’s head. His thoughts continued over and over, endlessly, until acted upon, and this rhetorical device underlines the fact that they took over every one of his senses and his entire being. The whole of “The Columbian Orator” changed his life forever, giving him awareness and discomfort within his situation and his own self. Douglass’s life turned completely around in this chapter, changing his entire mindset, because of one woman, Sophia Auld. Her change in demeanor caused an entire chain reaction within Frederick Douglass and his drive, knowledge, and ability. Douglass then found the weapon needed to complete the necessities of his escape from slavery. This chapter changed the idea of the book from the want to run away to actually running away, and is the most essential to the book as a whole.
The hopeful and then helpless tones in Douglass' passage reflect his inner turmoil throughout the process of his escape from the wretched south. At first, Frederick Douglass feels the utter feeling of happiness covering every inch of his body and soul. However, he soon finds out that the rosy path has thorns that dug into his skin as freedom was dangled in front of his face through a tunnel of complete darkness.
Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, about the devastation associated with slavery and the destruction from which comes desperation. Douglass intends to summon upon the guilt and empathy of his white audience by giving an account from which the reader is able to coax up a new perspective on the dreadful oppression. Seen especially in the third paragraph where Douglass provides a series of rhetorical devices including: apostrophe, anaphora, personification, exemplum, and epithet in his sorrowful bellowing to passing ships.
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a slave narrative published in 1845, Frederick Douglass divulged his past as a slave and presented a multifaceted argument against slavery in the United States. Douglass built his argument with endless anecdotes and colorful figurative language. He attempted to familiarize the naïve Northerners with the hardships of slavery and negate any misconstrued ideas that would prolong slavery’s existence in American homes. Particularly in chapter seven, Douglass both narrated his personal experience of learning to write and identified the benefits and consequences of being an educated slave.
In the following excerpt from the autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the third paragraph is distinguished from the rest of the passage due to the immediate shift of attitude, and exhibiting a somewhat of an ebullience through this hopeful vision of becoming forever free, which is effectively displayed by his use of figurative language and short and concise like syntax.
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
America in the mid to early nineteenth century saw the torture of many African Americans in slavery. Plantation owners did not care whether they were young or old, girl or boy, to them all slaves were there to work. One slave in particular, Frederick Douglass, documented his journey through slavery in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Through the use of various rhetorical devices and strategies, Douglass conveys the dehumanizing and corrupting effect of slavery, in order to show the overall need for American abolition. His use of devices such as parallelism, asyndeton, simile, antithesis, juxtaposition and use of irony, not only establish ethos but also show the negative effects of slavery on slaves, masters and
Slavery consisted of numerous inhumane horrors completed to make its victims feel desolated and helpless. Many inescapable of these horrors of slavery are conveyed in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. The entire prospect of the duration of the story is to plan an escape from the excruciating conditions awaiting Douglass as a slave. When his escape is finally executed, unpredictable emotions and thoughts overwhelm him. Within the conclusion of his narrative (shown in the given passage), Frederick Douglass uses figurative language, diction, and syntax to portray such states of mind he felt after escaping slavery: relief, loneliness, and paranoia.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, one of the major themes is how the institution of slavery has an effect on the moral health of the slaveholder. The power slaveholders have over their slaves is great, as well as corrupting. Douglass uses this theme to point out that the institution of slavery is bad for everyone involved, not just the slaves. Throughout the narrative, Douglass uses several of his former slaveholders as examples. Sophia Auld, once such a kind and caring woman, is transformed into a cruel and oppressive slave owner over the course of the narrative. Thomas Auld, also. Douglass ties this theme back to the main concern of authorial control. Although this is a personal account, it is also a tool of propaganda, and is used as such. Douglass’s intent is to convince readers that the system of slavery is horrible and damaging to all included, and thus should be abolished completely. Douglass makes it very clear in his examples how exactly the transformation occurs and how kind and moral people can become those who beat their slaves and pervert Christianity in an attempt to justify it.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Afterwards, her attitude changed towards Frederick and other slaves. She started to become cruel to the slaves, and Frederick surveys this demoralizing metamorphosis. “Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instructions which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master” (Douglass 873). Frederick recognized how fast a person can change their views on slavery, but this is point at which he discovers that knowledge the key to freedom.
According to the New York City writing project at Lehman College ,“... Reading, writing and thinking are interrelated activities that contribute to the student’s success in school, college, the community and the workplace.” Reading and writing and thinking are associated with each other and can actually help people reach success through the power of reflection. Reflection is being able to think of our past and present experience and really analyze how we can become better. Reflection also allows one to better understand what is going on around us. Frederick Douglass and Amy Tan’s literacy and language allowed them to achieve success through reflection. Frederick Douglass was a slave that learned how to read and write even besides the
As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.