Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

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In Gotham City, the Joker places bombs on two captive ferries and leaves the fate of each ferry in the hands of the other in hopes of turning the two sides against each other before time runs out. In doing so, he assumes that the close vicinity to freedom will destroy the hostages as they drown the opposite ferry. Similarly, in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Frederick Douglass is approached with the same situation as his nearness to freedom eats him away. Though the world molests him because they recognize him as equity, Douglass proves that as a slave, the close proximity to freedom is his worst torment.
Though slavery portrays him as property, Douglass exposes himself as a real human. He …show more content…

As he compares himself to the ships, Douglass uses a multitude of exclamation points following his quotation marks. Whereas previous lines illustrate the surroundings and lifestyle of a slave, quotation marks in the third paragraph signals that Douglass is thinking to himself. Through his thoughts, he transmits his feelings for the first time as he longs for freedom, and the exclamations emphasize his emotions. Moreover, Douglass’ syntax changes from long, flowery descriptions to short, simple thoughts as he prays to God. The short, train-of-thought sentences demonstrate that the slave’s mind is not caught up in its surroundings, but instead it is constantly focused on freedom. As he prays, he begs God to save him from slavery. While previously his lack of evident emotion suggests that he lacks hope, he now proves to be desperate, and wants nothing more than to escape. However, as he is desperate to escape, Douglass quotes, “I had as well be killed running as die standing.” Through his desperation to be free, Douglass decides he would rather die escaping than stand and stare out the bay. Thus, the torment of freedom has caused him to value death over

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