How To Write An Example Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Douglass Speech Analysis Essay In Fredrick Douglass’ essay, he addresses America and its indifferent attitude towards slavery in the country. Using emotional appeals and logic, Douglass illustrates his point that America must abolish slavery. In the second paragraph of his essay, Douglass says that “you [Americans] are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at. liberty for the enslaved of America.” In this statement, Douglass uses logic to point out the inconsistency of America’s allegiances: Americans prefer to give their support for other oppressed countries, while remaining indifferent to the injustice being done in their own country. Douglass also uses emotional appeals in his speech, …show more content…

This emotional appeal illustrates the backward nature of America: it gives foreign oppressed peoples support, while ignoring its own oppressed people. Moreover, in describing the hypocrisy of America, Douglass uses both emotional appeals and reasoning, saying that “your [America’s] celebration is a sham... your prayers and hymns... are to him [the slave] mere bombast, fraud... and hypocrisy...” Douglass depicts America’s hypocrisy through the lens of a slave; by calling the “liberty” in America a sham, he expands on the idea that there is no real liberty for slaves. In this quote, Douglass uses emotional appeals and logic to advance his point that America is blinded by their indifference to see the injustice being done to its enslaved population. In expanding on the idea of America being blind to its injustice, Douglass writes that “you [American’s] hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria and pride yourselves on you democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be mere tools and bodyguards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina.” Using emotion and logic, Douglass continues to describe how hypocritical the people of America are: they denounce the injustice being done in other parts of the world yet make no changes to their cruel behavior

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