Rhetorical Analysis Of Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass’s tone in his introductory paragraph of Learning to Read and Write is learned and reflective. Douglass begins his introduction with a brief background of how he “succeeded in learning to read and write” despite the difficulties presented by his masters. He does not use words or phrases that suggest remorse even the slightest bit of bitterness, instead he uses analytic descriptions of how his mistress “kindly” began to instruct him, but because of the disapproval from her husband, stopped and allowed no one else to teach him. Douglass then explains that his mistress, although was a strict slave-owner, “first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me [him] out in mental darkness.” Through reflection and analysis, Douglass concluded that his mistress treated him badly not out of heart but because she had become corrupted in attempts to receive the approval from society. This itself I find ironic because instead of having developed resentment towards his mistress, Douglass respectfully describes her as a woman who was simply following the norm. Also, because of the emphasis on her kindness, after he explained that she was deprived from teaching him,

you would expect her to either allow another individual to teach him or to go against the norm, but instead she becomes a ruthless mistress like the rest; this is an example of situational irony because the mistress had done what was unexpected based on her character description.
Douglass uses soft language to depict the softness of his mistress.

He uses syntax synonymous to delicate to describe her as “kind”, “tender-hearted”, and “pious.” This creates an image of a small compassionate woman. Also, he uses an overstatement to emphasis her empathetic nature by claiming: “There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not shed a tear.” This was also a contradiction to the follow up description of his mistress once she had assumed her role as a slave-owner; Douglass describes how her “tender heart became stone, and her lamblike disposition gave way to one of the tiger-like fierceness.” These rhetorical appeals create an image for the reader to fully understand the drastic corruption Douglass’s mistress went through in order to follow the norm society had built upon

her.
The purpose of paragraph three was to set one of the ideas Douglass was trying to get across to his audience: knowledge was power that needed to be taken advantage of. He tells how he wasn’t allowed to read or be given enough solitary time that would allow him to read because of his mistress fear that he would learn independently. But Douglass, who had already learned the alphabet, had taken the first step; “Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.” This supports the idea that knowledge is power because Douglass was using the little knowledge he had acquired in order to expand his mind, and began to understand the world from a different perspective.