How Does Frederick Douglass Use Irony In Slavery

In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument.

In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in 1845, Douglass is reflecting on his experiences as a slave, as well as the known experiences of others, following his escape from bondage. He is making a plea to the Northerners who do not have a complete knowledge or understanding of the conditions of slavery in the South or are otherwise unopinionated in relation to it. In a later passage of the narrative, he focuses on the common beliefs of slave owners through a description of Mr. Hopkins, a former overseer he reported to. He reflects on this ideal that any problematic actions, or “misbehavior,” of slaves is awarded with abuse and punishment. Douglass includes concise and sarcastic rhetorical questions and responses in order to shed

Besides, Douglass has utilized the ironic tool in the paragraph of his essay. For instance, although he lived as a slave at the time of his learning process, he explains to the readers that he brought bread when doing one part of chores so he could exchange for a reading lesson from local children before his return. He acknowledges: "I felt much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 26), which is ironic because Douglass himself would probably be in a worse position. Moreover, this kind of irony also presented at the top of the essay, Douglass called himself a slave which reminded the audiences that slaves did not happen in some faraway land; it happened in America – the land of freedom that can also be the land of slavery. Additionally, it is hard to believe for the white American that in the mid-1880s, a black person could even learn to read and less write a book (Shmoop Editorial Team).

In the year of 1776, when the founding fathers confirmed their commitment to the inalienable rights of life and liberty, they opted to ignore the question of how slavery would piece into those newfangled ideals. Eventually, however, it became impossible to ignore the blatant violations of humanity in a country that was founded upon the principles of freedom. Tensions between the oppressive South and the opposing North rose to a point that the nation had become one that was divided against itself and threatened to break apart. The response to this national crisis was a revolutionary new type of literature with the objective of overthrowing slavery. The authors of these anti-slavery texts used logical, ethical and emotional rhetoric to confront their audiences with the cruelty and destructiveness of

Throughout history, irony has been used in a multitude of ways. It is not just a way to inject humor into a story, but a way to slip a message in without saying it flat out. By doing that, it allows the reader to take in the information, and possibly come to the conclusion that the author wanted them to. This way, though, it does not seem like something forced upon them. Authors who used this tactic were Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They wrote these novels during the reconstruction period about the pre civil war era, and used them to get their opinions on the time period across. While some may say that Twain and Douglass used irony for many purposes , they mainly used it to expose the downfalls of society by critiquing hypocrisy, conformity, and the cruelty of slavery.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; an autobiography consisting of Frederick Douglass’ search for freedom from the slaveholders who kept many African Americans captive, allowed many to understand the pain and misery in the midst of slavery. Published in 1845, Douglass conveyed the lives of African Americans and how they have suffered a great deal of pain and discomfort through a provocative tone . Throughout his autobiography, Douglass used countless metaphors to portray his life. From Mr. Plummer to Mrs. Auld, the reader could better perceive the text by visualizing the metaphors that Douglass has used. Using Frederick’s writing, youthful audiences can gain knowledge about slavery and its effects.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass (University of Virginia Library. Web. 15 Dec. 2015) puts readers in a position that allows them to understand the great struggles and misfortunes that came with being an American slave and how Frederick Douglass’ managed to escape from the grasp of slavery and find his own liberating freedom. A daring feat that can be defined by a series of epiphanies, a man’s great determination, and the constant regrowth of a broken man’s soul. From the excerpt, previously shown above, Douglass depicts a vivid image of just how severe the work conditions of slaves were, how difficult it was to please a slave master, and how horribly a man can be ripped of his will. To vividly describe such trying tribulations and convey a devastating and piteous tone, the speaker utilizes numerous language devices, such as a multitude of phrases, sentence structures and types, deep diction, word repetition, and passive voice.

In his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass uses numerous devices and an unvarnished tone to soften a notoriously divisive subject and reveal the cruelty of slavery to a mostly white audience. Throughout the piece, Douglass employs numerous devices such as irony and aphorisms to camouflage the stark realities of slavery; such as when he says “a still tongue makes a wise head”(p.23) or Douglass’ ironic description of Mr. Gore as a “good overseer.” His wields this language to hide the realities that would alienate or turn off the white reader from his writing. Douglass also uses unembellished language to allow him to speak of some of the harshest parts of being a slave, and leave the moral deliberation up to the

The fourth of July and slaves really don’t mix. Frederick douglass was born as a slave and he does a speech on the fourth of july and they are thinking that he is going to give a whora speech but he dont do that it 's the complete opposite of what they thought.In frederick douglass, Hypocrisy of American Slavery he attacks the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating freedom and independence with speeches, parades and platitudes, while, within its borders, nearly four million humans were being kept as slaves. Overall douglass has explained his speech through emotional,ethical,logical appeal and through rhetorical questions.

The concealment of a deeper meaning through the use of irony is a powerful tool that can be utilized to bring about a greater impact to the actual meaning of what was intended. The use of irony is more common than it is thought to be, thus resulting in an incorrect use of the language device. In the article “Word police: irony & ironic” it is stated, “People routinely use without knowing what they mean. No one seems to use the dictionary anymore--and thus they end up sounding ignorant.”(1). This statement proposed that many a times literary devices are used wrongly therefore taking away from the hidden potential of impacting a person's thought into reasoning the deeper meaning of the phrase or statement. Irony is the use of words to describe

In Frederick Douglass’ passage written in to take place in New York in 1838, he uses emotion, and literary devices to convey his state of mind. He starts with persuading the reader to imagine the complexity of being a victim to slavery and escaping.

Unlike the Lost Generation the Harlem Renaissance was the birth of the New Negro. During the 1020’s just like The Lost Generation writers in the black community a new style of literature was born with a new set of mind. Before the Harlem renaissance black literature was mostly based on slave narratives accounts written by fugitive slaves about their lives in the south and, often, after escaping to freedom. This particular literature was used to illustrate the cruelties of life under slavery one of the most prominent Negro writer of that era was Frederick Douglas (c.1818-1895). His best-known work is his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave. During the 1920’s African-American literature flourished. From

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to express the cloud in judgment prejudice causes when examining the morals of others.

Irony as I define it is when an event is the complete opposite of the result that the average individual would assume. Crash proved to me that race is an ironic subject that is expressed through examples such as a Caucasian woman who is part of the majority being afraid of the African American male who is part of the minority.

Education is the light at the end of the tunnel, when Frederick uses it he discovers hope. In the story the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick goes through many struggles on his path to freedom, showing us the road from slavery to freedom. At the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave in both body and mind. When the book ends, he gets both his legal freedom and frees his mind. The path to freedom was not easy, but it got clearer when he got an education. Education gives hope for Douglass’s life since he began to truly understand what goes on in slavery. As he figured out more about the topic, his self- motivation poured out hope in his life.