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Passionate Writing Frederick Douglass, a slave who evolved to become an editor, public speaker and a leader in the abolitionist movement, expressed his academic struggles with learning as a slave in the early 1800s in his composition, “Learning to Read and Write”. When Douglass was a slave, the slave owners did not allow him to attend school, instead, he learned to read and write with the help of those around him. He eventually succeeded in achieving his ambitions; however, he still desired to become a free man. As he acquired more knowledge, Douglass was forced to change his learning methods in order to elude punishment from his owners, even enticing the white children to teach him in his free time. Douglass uses complex vocabulary, strong diction and unique metaphors provide his audience with a clear and undisputed perspective of his opinion on slavery. His unyielding determination, evident in his writings, encouraged the …show more content…
support of the abolitionist movement. Douglass’s use of metaphors and diction provide a greater understanding of his situation that appeal to any audience.
For instance, he writes, “The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever…it was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition.” (Douglass 103). The metaphor used, in this section, expresses Douglass’s anguish and hate upon realizing the truth of slavery and that freedom has always been nearby mocking him. The metaphor Douglass uses for his freedom is a trump; but not just any trump, it is a silver trump. This metaphor brings the audience a clear understanding of the immense value of freedom has on Douglass. Furthermore, his combination of diction, through his agony of freedom mocking him constantly, draws out the audience’s sympathy and sorrow for his “wretched condition” (Douglass 103). In essence, Douglass’s use of effective adjectives and emotions persuade the audience to sympathize with Douglass for his situation as a
slave. Additionally, Douglass uses an ever-changing pace in his writing to convey his message in an awe-inspiring and passionate manner. For instance, he proclaims, “Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to read and write.”(Douglass 105), and he asserts, “The slave was made to say some very smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master—things which had the desired though unexpected effect.” (Douglass 102)¬¬¬ . Martin Luther King Junior, a Baptist minister and a leading social activist in the Civil Rights Movement, also uses a similar pace to also inspire and motivate his audience to support the equality of all people. Throughout his speech, he changes his length of pauses between paragraphs, between sentences, even between words, in order to have a greater emotional impact on the audience. For instance, King declares, “I Have a Dream” throughout his piece, he expresses a variety of pauses each time to amplify his emotion towards the audience. His variety in pace provides a powerful and sensational speech that has been known nation-wide for decades. In the same fashion, Douglass employs his own pacing to have a similar effect that galvanizes his audience to abolish slavery. The precise diction and awe-inspiring emotion that Douglass plunges his readers into, provides a clear view to the audience of what life is like as a slave. As a result, the audience supports and sympathizes with to Douglass and the abolitionist movement. Douglass’s usage of metaphors provides extensive insight into the emotions and struggles that relentlessly challenged him throughout his life. In order to improve the delivery of his message, Douglass alters the pace throughout his essay that assists in conveying the complexity of his emotions. Ultimately, unbound by time, both Douglass and his essay efficaciously continue to educate countless societies on the transgressions of thralldom, and inspire people to persevere towards achieving their ambitions.
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
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.
“You have seen how man was made a slave; you shall see how slave was made a man” (Douglass 64)
During a time of unimaginable change and unknown future about slavery, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick was introduce to those who felt lost and unrepresented in the public discourse of slavery and their prospect as an American. This text was not simply a calling for freedom, but also as a response to those who did not believe or argued that a well-spoken man could never have been a slave, and those who thought he should share part of his story. The main significance of this narrative is to fight for the rights and freedoms of African Americans. While Douglass was using his words and writing skills, he advocated for equal rights, opportunities and the idea of American identity
While writing about the dehumanizing nature of slavery, Douglass eloquently and efficiently re-humanize African Americans. This is most evident throughout the work as a whole, yet specific parts can be used as examples of his artistic control of the English language. From the beginning of the novel, Douglass’ vocabulary is noteworthy with his use of words such as “intimation […] odiousness […] ordained.” This more advanced vocabulary is scattered throughout the narrative, and is a testament to Douglass’ education level. In conjunction with his vocabulary, Douglass often employed a complex syntax which shows his ability to manipulate the English language. This can be seen in Douglass’ self-description of preferring to be “true to [himself], even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur [his] own abhorrence.” This is significant because it proves that Douglass can not only simply read and write, but he has actually obtained a mastery of reading and writing. This is a highly humanizing trait because it equates him in education level to that of the stereotypical white man, and how could one deny that the white man is human because of his greater education? It is primarily the difference in education that separates the free from the slaves, and Douglass is able to bridge this gap as a pioneer of the
The general argument made by Frederick Douglass in his piece, “Learning to Read and Write,” is that, being articulate is a strong quality for any person, both black and white to possess. It was believed that education and slavery were to forever be in malice, what could possibly be more dangerous than the oppression and suppression of slavery itself, the answer to that is an educated slave, an articulate black man. Ignorance was bliss in the times of enslavement, nonetheless, by obtaining an education, enlightenment occurred. One could no longer view even the nicest of enslavers in a light which shone beauty upon them but rather in a distasteful shadow.
Frederick Douglass was a noted writer, abolitionist, orator, and former slave; in fact, his oratory ability was so good that there were those who were among the most ardent opponents of slavery who could not believe that he had been a slave. His best known work is Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, a book of eleven chapters and an appendix. The purpose of the book was to provide a well-written account of a slave’s life for northern readers who might not yet be convinced of the abolitionist cause. Thus, the book was both a memoir and a polemic against the institution of slavery.
While knowledge can open many doors for success, it can also put a lock on various ones for people who don’t have an opportunity to practice it. This is portrayed in an essay by Frederick Douglass named Learning to Read and Write. It portrays the hardships he faced and the toll it took on him. Frederick Douglass was a slave who was born in Talbot County Maryland and then became a server for a family in Baltimore. He also became an active participant in the abolitionist movement in 1838. Michael Scot’s response toward Frederick Douglass was that gaining knowledge was more of a dissatisfaction rather than a worthy accomplishment for the reason that education made him realize he had no other option to his condition. For Frederick Douglass, learning
In the essay “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass illustrates how he successfully overcome the tremendous difficulties to become literate. He also explains the injustice between slavers and slaveholders. Douglass believes that education is the key to freedom for slavers. Similarly, many of us regard education as the path to achieve a career from a job.
Frederick Douglass was an American slave in the south during the time of the abolitionist movement. During his time in slavery he learned his ABC’s from a benevolent slave owner and from there teaches himself how to read. Using this knowledge he is able to learn about the abolitionist movement in the north and eventually plans his escape from his captivity in Baltimore. Many years after his escape he is able to write and publish the narrative of his life with the purpose of showing abolitionist and those on the fence about slavery in the North that the institution is not all it is portrayed to be. During Douglass’s time many slave owners painted a different view of the South and how kind and just slavery was. In his narrative Douglass fights this claim by depicting frightening violations of human rights that occurred in his own life time to show abolitionist that slavery is blatantly against american justice and liberty.
Early in his life Douglass, realized the importance of learning to read and write due to his master, Mr. Auld, getting so angry with Mrs. Auld for helping Douglass learn to read. This sparked an intense desire for a young Douglass to do everything he could to continue his learning despite Mrs. Auld halting her teachings, “All this, however, was too late. The first step had been taken, Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell” (338). He convinced poor, young, white children to help him learn to read and write by making games of it with them or offering them food in exchange for whatever they could teach him. Douglass is a more realistic representation of an American hero, and he fought vehemently for his own freedom and then against the injustices still left in this country.
Frederick Douglass was a born slave that had escaped from Maryland, although he was far away from his slaves he became an advocate for those who were still enslaved. Douglass could not have achieved this if he had not learned how to read and Write. Since he had not learned how to read and write. Since he was born a slave reading and writing was none but a distant dream. However, he had breaches assistance from his mistress named Sophia. Sophia was Douglass’s teacher from the beginning; she had only shown him the alphabet when her husband had gotten to her about teaching Negroes how to read. So she stopped teaching him immediately. But that did not stop young Frederick, oh no, she had given him an inch now he wanted the whole yard. In his essay, “Learning to Read and Write” he states, “…was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met ...