Rhetorical Analysis Of Narrative Of The Lift Of Frederick Douglass

Through the literary works they made people aware of the injustice and inhumanity that slavery was based on and because if its written form they had impact on many generations coming years and decades later. Phillis Wheatley through poems appeals to the intellectual side of the people while Frederick Douglas using slave narrative in his autobiography introduces readers to cruelty and blooded side of black’s oppression. Even though they used different literary convention, they both became an inspiration for long-term changes that transformed the United Stated and it is still visible in current times. By affecting minds and souls of society, they inscribed themselves in American literary tradition

An example of this is, “we hanged our harps upon the willow in the midst thereof” (Douglass 286). This piece of text is Douglass saying that once you’ve been a slave there is no way to forget everything that he experienced because of how horrifying it was. With this quote it helps to prove his credibility because he can relate to what slaves are going through and can use his personal experiences to convince people that slavery needs to end. While Frederick Douglass experienced many atrocities during his time as a former slave many Americans were aware of what slaves experienced, so he had to use other means as well to persuade his audience to support abolitionism which would help end slavery once and for all in

In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

Do you feel sorry for him or does he get what he deserves? What does it tell you about how upper class southerners treated slaves? The preacher is the least sympathetic character in the entire story. He literally has no redeeming value as a human being, though he does provide value as a plot device. We first meet him when he is trying to kill a woman he has gotten pregnant.

To tell a story a person uses a unique style to further advance the experience, and what their message is. In the 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he talks about his thoughts and experiences as a slave. From the passage, we can find the third paragraph to differ in style in order to distinguish the message from the rest of the passage. He uses a collection of persuasive devices and imagery, to get his message across strong and clear for readers. With a strong presence of pathos, symbolism, and rhetorical questions in the third paragraph, it helped build and reinforce his main idea of the passage.

To fail to do work to a respectable level means to be sold to another plantation and ripped away from one’s family. To try to escape, is to die. It is constantly apparent that these values apply to Cora’s life as much as any slave of the time period. Big Anthony was one slave on the Randall plantation in which Cora worked. However, Big Anthony had tried to escape the chains of slavery.

Slaves are whipped and tortured, having their skin extremely mutilated. They are punished even for the smallest things such as a bar of soap which destroys even the smallest freedom of self cleaning. These methods break down slaves and any hope they may carry with them. The lengths slaveholders went to maintain control of the slaves makes slavery a “peculiar

“After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and heart, he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections. (Preface.4)” In this quote, Frederick Douglass is giving a big speech in front of an even bigger audience. This is one of Douglass’s earlier speeches, so he hadn’t had much practice when it came to public announcements. In the quote, Douglass is simply trying to inform the audience of the education that slaves and blacks, in general, are given. Douglass tries to tell his audience that they are not dumb or retarded, they are plainly uneducated and the slaves have know one to blame for this but their

In the Narrative, Fredrick Douglass uses his own personal experiences as an African-American slave in the South to paint a unique and vivid picture of the effects slavery has on both himself and those around him. The story of how Douglass went from a slave to a free man not only serves as a historically important piece of literature, but also raises questions about how slavery changes a person. While Douglass’s Narrative is autobiographical in nature, he analyzes many aspects of his past in order to make sense of his enslavement and how it formed his beliefs about the world around him. One of the most pivotal moments in Douglass’s work is his physical fight with Mr. Covey.

Harriet Tubman once said, “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” During slavery, both whites and blacks were being subconsciously dehumanized. By treating blacks as beasts, slave owners became beasts because their actions were not guided by any consciousness or morality but by pure bestiality. This leads to psychological effects on both ends, on slave owners and on slaves. Beloved, by Toni Morrison, illustrates the life of Sethe and her constant battle with her enslaved past and supernatural presence, which makes her act upon her predestined future. Morrison connects slavery with the distortion of identity.

When it comes to Whitfield’s poetry, his tone stands out as a key factor of his writing style. Most of the writing about slavery from black authors in the 1800s features ugly themes and retelling of experiences, but Whitfield excels at bringing his cynical attitude to the surface of his poetry. He also includes redeeming moments that instill hopefulness. His poem America exemplifies his direct tone of writing. He wastes no time to set the tone in his opening passage “America, it is to thee,| Thou boasted land of liberty, ¬¬-| It is to thee I raise my song,| Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong” (1-4).