...Although Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
Words: 1647 - Pages: 7
...Ernest,Holland Mr.Yoder Eng.lll 1. Odd 12 March Feb.20 2018 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents an insight into the power imbalance between a slave and a slaveholder. In this account, Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave but also the owner. The toxic irresponsible power that the masters hold has a dehumanizing effect on the way they live their lives. This vast amount of control in the hands of one person destroys the good-natured and finest feelings turning them into those of a evil source. With this theme Douglass completes his important visual of slavery as unnatural for all involved. Douglass explains normal action patterns of slaveholders to picture the damaging influences of slavery. Douglass...
Words: 426 - Pages: 2
...Every time an author writes a book, they have some sort of purpose. Whether it is to tell the reader about an experience or inform the reader about a situation. In Narrative of Frederick Douglass his goal in the story is to not only to show/inform the reader the cruelty of slavery but to persuade the reader of the evils of slavery to the slaveholder and the slave. He uses many devices to portray his thinking, and to persuade the reader that not only are slaves affected by slavery, but the slaveholders too. He uses literary devices to show slavery in a different light such irony, anecdotes, and imagery. • Throughout the book Douglass uses many rhetoric and arguementive strategies to persuade the reader. He often uses irony to show the reality...
Words: 880 - Pages: 4
...Frederick Douglass' memoir "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" has long been noted for its demonstration of Douglass' superior skill with rhetoric. Distributed in 1845, two decades before slavery was abolished, the book is a brutally honest illustration of slavery's dehumanizing impact. By unmistakably establishing his ethos and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses many rhetorical devices to argue for the immorality of slavery. Douglass' narrative weaves multiple anecdotes together, each illustrating a different aspect of slavery's immorality. For example, in chapter eight, Douglass' crippling grandmother is expelled from the plantation because she is too old to work further. Despite her faithful service, even caring for...
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Ironically, all beings have been aggravated by society to maintain the freedom of their ethnicity for years. African-American abolitionist and self-taught writer, Frederick Douglass, uncovers the white supremacy demonstrated in the form of slavery in his novel: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Its crucial content revolutionized how Americans perceive slavery since northerners in the 19th century were awfully convinced giving an African-American the life of bondage was none other than acceptable. White supremacy is the collaboration of people. Where all spread social hierarchies that exclude might. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass asserts: “I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust…[and] to understand it, one must...experience it…” (Douglass 113) This suggests the absorbance of gloomy behavior and attitudes about white male’s features particularly. Foreigners,...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is a memoir written by Frederick Douglass. In this memoir Douglass successfully uses pathos and tone to create an effective argument that supports the abolishment of slavery. Douglass effectively utilizes pathos when he writes about the disadvantages and hardships that he faces as a slave. The white men had an overwhelming amount of authority over the slaves because of the difference in skin color, Douglass himself did not understand, "why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege" (36/269) and was given no explanation to answers these thoughts. Douglass reflects on the basic freedoms he was not given as a child, such as knowing his birthday, which begins to pull on the heart strings of...
Words: 505 - Pages: 3
...27, 2024 The Immorality in Slavery Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and American Slave. Written by Himself:” shows the experiences he had while being a slave. By giving us insights into how dehumanizing slavery is for everyone involved. Showing how an innocent slave owner can go from being pure to being extremely corrupt. By being taught to read, seeing that it could be a possible route to freedom. He realized that it could also be a curse as well because he is now more knowledgeable on what slavery is. As to the person who taught him, he is now seeing him as a threat, trying to oppose him. With this detailed information from Douglass, we...
Words: 823 - Pages: 4
...In any story, one will always find a setting, for it surrounds the very story itself. In further detail, a setting is the environment of a work of art, which includes the location, time period and circumstances of the story. Like all other literature, and works of art in general, The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass includes one, specifically one in the immersed in an antebellum United States of America. In The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, the setting contributes a massive portion to the story. That book takes place in The United States before the American Civil War, and focused on the life of former slave Frederick Douglass. The story chronicles the timeline of his life, including events like him being taught to read...
Words: 306 - Pages: 2
...The passage from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass has many different rhetorical devices to construct an emotional and detailed story of Douglass’s life. Throughout the passage Douglass uses different stylistic elements such as diction, figurative language, and syntax to reinforce his rhetorical purpose of the passage. The silique of the third paragraph, helps Douglass to create a strained and questioning tone on the section when comparing himself “fast in his chains” to that of the “free swift-winged” ships. The previous paragraphs provided a steady, sad tone of narration through “the bitterest dregs of slavery”, which was his life, when Douglass then bursts into frustration of “why am I a slave?” In paragraph one and two Douglass...
Words: 650 - Pages: 3
...Prompt: How does Frederick Douglass use rhetorical strategies in this excerpt from his narrative to convey his thoughts on slavery and on his grandmother? In the excerpt from Frederick Douglass’s narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass uses rhetorical strategies to express his utter disgust towards slavery and the pain for his grandmother. The strategies he used in his book include figurative language, imagery, diction, descriptive detail, and syntax. These techniques enhanced and emphasized Douglass’s emotions on the bondage he and his grandmother dealt with for long periods of time. The selected section of text taken from Frederick Douglass’s book centers around the idea of slavery and how it has greatly impacted Douglass and his grandmother. Because of this practice of physical and mental bondage, Douglass’s grandmother didn’t have a proper family to be around with. Her children and grandchildren were never beside her due to their inferior status as slaves. This has caused Douglass’s grandmother great pain, which ultimately led to her aging rather quickly....
Words: 434 - Pages: 2
...Use Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave to examine identity. From its first page, The ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas’ is set up as an exploration of Identity; The main purpose of the novel being to establish the truth of Frederick Douglass’s public identity and ‘set [himself] right before the public in the United States’ (Blassingame, 1979, p. 251). In fact, the text was described by Albert Stone as the “first native American autobiography to create a black identity in a style and form adequate to the pressures of historical black experience” (Stone, 1973, p. 213). As Kimberly Drake explains, “Slaves' (or more accurately, ex-slaves') autobiographies record the process in which the ex-slave writes his or her self into an existence recognized by dominant American society. The author portrays the way he or she overcomes the slaveholding society's continuing attempts to eradicate his or her identity; simultaneously, s/he rewrites that identity to fit the dominant culture's norms, despite the fact that these norms tend to conflict with his/her own experiences during and after slavery. These autobiographies thus provide dramatic models of the textual construction and development of "American" identity”. (Drake, 1997) In essence, Drake argues that Douglass has used his ‘Narrative’ to chronicle the death and consequent rebirth of his identity. The novel uses language, pacing and symbolism to establish Douglass’s sense of...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...Fredrick Douglass final essay Subpoint 4: The Christianity of the slaveholders is hypocritical and used to justify their actions. There are two forms of Christianity represented in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and each are described and function differently throughout the text. Based on Douglass’ personal recollections and thoughts in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there are both real and false versions of religion and generally, the real or “true” form of Christianity is practiced by himself as well as some whites who are opposed to slavery. The false form of religion, or what the author explained in one of the important quotes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, “the hypocritical Christianity of this land” (95) is practiced by whites, most notably Mr. Covey, and is a complete bastardization of the true ideals behind genuine Christian thought. Through his discussions of religion that are interspersed throughout The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader gets the sense that slavery and true Christianity are opposing forces and one cannot be present while the other exists. Not only is the simultaneous existence of the true version Christianity with slavery impossible, it appears that even if real Christianity does exist in a pure form, the introduction of slavery corrupts it inevitably and...
Words: 2185 - Pages: 9
...Throughout history, many great works of literature were written and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of them. This book is important because its publication made people realize slavery was bad for everyone, not just the slaves. To add on, in each important piece of literature, the author has reasons to write the book. Frederick Douglass has three reasons to write this narrative and these are the reasons made his book a great book. The first reason is to bring to life a slave’s experiences as a slave. In his narrative, he says, “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (1). Frederick didn’t even know his own age which is a basic right everyone has now. Slaves were deprived of their basic rights because of slavery. Douglass’s experience...
Words: 796 - Pages: 4
...Slavery was a very disturbing action that existed in America’s history. African Americans were treated terribly during this time because of things such as racism, discrimination, and prejudice. They were treated as if they were not even human beings. One specific account that is available regarding slavery in the 1800s is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This book, published in 1845, is an autobiography that gives a vivid description of the struggles Frederick Douglass faced as a slave in America. The first thing that Frederick Douglass had to face was prejudice. Douglass was automatically viewed differently in his time simply because of the color of his skin. The Prejudice Personality is also known as “Authoritarian Personality.” An example of someone with this type of personality is Mr. Austin Gore, Douglass’s overseer at one time. He thought that he automatically had a power over the slaves because he was a white man. He judged the slaves as worthless and stupid before ever knowing the facts. Little did he know that Douglass was so smart that he would later write a book, let alone learn to read and write. This predisposed judgment is an example of someone with the Prejudice Personality. Prejudice is an attitude, however and therefore can be changed or eliminated. This is not an easy task though. In order to ever make a social change, as in the case of slavery, an attitude change must come first. According to Functional theorist...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...Although throughout the Narrative, Frederick Douglass has a tendency to skip around often and does not always follow a completely chronological ordering, the work begins with his childhood. Frederick Douglass gives a summary of how he, like many other slave children, has no idea when his birthday is but as far he can guess it must have been around 1818. He was separated from his mother right after he was born (which he imagines was because they did not want the bonds of family to develop naturally between families) but recalls how sometimes she would walk at night from a neighboring plantation to sleep with him. As this important part of this summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” makes clear, he tells the reader that she died but because of his lack of connection with her the news did not have much of an impact on him. All Frederick Douglass knows about his father is that he is a white man based on his light skin tone and rumors he’s heard to confirm it. Frederick Douglass then gives the reader a brutal short summary of that the rape of female slaves by their white masters actually benefits slavery because by law the products of the rape become slaves themselves. When you’re reading this analysis and summary of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and throughout the text itself, you should notice the way Douglass makes reference not just to the cruelty of slavery as an institution, but also how he shows the way it has become institutionalized through...
Words: 2037 - Pages: 9
