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Rhetorical Analysis Of Learning To Read And Write Frederick Douglass

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Learning to Read and Write Fredrick Douglas was a well known figure in the abolishment movement his narrative “Learning to Read and Write” Fredrick Douglas shares his own personal journey of how he learns to read and write. His chronological organization also helps the reader get a better grasp of the stages in his life; his innocence, his epiphany, his loathing and his finally his determination. In the expert Douglas uses syntax and diction, intelligent metaphors and he use of irony to portray his thoughts that went through his mind as a slave. In the beginning of his narrative Douglas use of syntax and diction. He speaks about his first teacher, the mistress, and how she was so eager to educate him. Initially, Douglass reveres her as a kind and generous woman because she was his …show more content…

The metaphors Douglas uses for the most powerful statements, and help them to mark the main ideas of the essay. When Douglas writes about the poor children who taught him in exchange for bread, he makes a connection that is easily relate in to the reader's mind: "This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge" (Douglass 70). He also reflects on his owner's wife (referring to her as "mistress") saying "mistress, in teaching the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell" (Douglass 69). This implies that "mistress" is the origin of Douglass's success in his field, and that without her, he wouldn't have accomplished all that he has. He also recollects his feelings towards his enslavers, equating them with "a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes..." (Douglass 71). If for whatever reason the reader hadn't made that connection, Douglass extinguishes any confusion by offering this

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