Rhetorical Analysis of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Essay

Rhetorical Analysis of Narrative of the intent of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass wrote many autobiographies, editorials, and speeches. His greatest piece is probably the book Narrative of the carriage of Frederick Douglass. In this book he dialog somewhat his life as a slave and he makes numerous arguments against slavery. Upon a closer reading, Douglass, by metaphors and per watchwordal anecdotes, appeals to the trio rhetorical appeals Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Later in the first chapter Douglass talks somewhat his aunt Hester.Hester disobeyed their owner and he started to punish her. He lead her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose (Douglass pg4) Made her get on hap of the stool tied her to the hook and he commenced to lay on the threatening cowskin and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor (Douglass pg 5) I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet and dared n ot to venture out till long afterwards the bloody transaction was over. (Douglass pg 5)With this quote he is subtly saying If you motivation to know about slavery I can tell you about slavery because I was on that point, I lived it. For the fact that he was there and witnessed this solvent demos him ethos. Around the middle of the second chapter Douglass talks about an overseer named Mr. unadulterated. Mr. Severe was the overseer of Colonel Lloyds, who was Douglass owner, plantation. Mr. Severe was rightly named he was a cruel man.I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half(prenominal) an hour at a time and this, too, in the midst of her shout children, pleading for their mothers release. (Douglass pg 7) Again this same situation where he is telling the listening that he knows what he is talking about because he witnessed and lived it so therefore he has equal credibility to talk about it. This quote shows that he knows exactly what he is talking about so he has the ethos to tell the audience what a slaves life was like. In the middle of chapter two Douglass talks about how the slaves were not assignn over beds.He said They entrap less difficulty from the urgency of beds, than from the want of time to sleep (Douglass pg 6) Very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing the field for the coming day and when this is shame, old and young, male and female, get hitched with and single, decrease down side by side, on one common bed,-the cold, let out floor,- each covering himself of herself with their miserable blankets (Douglass pg 6) He says this to evoke emotion into the audience the phrase the cold, damp floor, and the parallel structure old and young, male and female, married and single evokes emotion.This is a smashed appeal to pathos in his argument. In the beginning of chapter eight Douglass talks about when he went to live in Baltimore. He talks about His old whelms youngest son dying and then three years l ater his old master died. So his property was cute and he was sent for to be note valued with the other property. Here again my feelings rose up in plague of slavery. I had now a new conception of my degraded chequerI left Baltimore with a young cheek overborne with sadness, and a mortal full of apprehension. (Douglass pg 27) He says this and these lines evoke so much emotion. With the phrase a young heart overborne with sadness and the use of other emotional linguistic communication and phrases get the audience vent. So this is also an example of a strong appeal to pathos. Around the middle of chapter six Douglass talks about going to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. Mrs. Auld started to teach him the A, B, Cs. After he learned that he was learning to spell words of three or four letters. At that point Mr. Auld found out and told Mrs. Auld not to study him further.He said Mr. Auld said if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable and of no value to his master It would only make him discontented and unhappy. These words sank deep into my heart I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the ashen mans power to enslave the black man. (Douglass pg 20) This is his epiphany or his apologue of the cave moment when he realizes what is actually going on.He imagination logically for a long time and he finally found what he was looking for. This quote is an appeal to logos. Early on in chapter nine Douglass talks about his Master Thomas Auld. He says he always got enough to eat everywhere else he went but not with Master Thomas. I have said Master Thomas was a rigorous man Not to give a slave enough to eat, is regarded as the most aggravated development of meanness even among slaveholders. The rationale is, no matter how roughhewn the food, only let there be enough of it Master Thomas gave us enough of neither coarse nor fin e food. (Douglass pg 31)This is a syllogism he is saying Mean slave owners dont give their slaves enough to eat, Master Thomas doesnt give his slaves enough to eat therefore Master Thomas is a mean man. A syllogism appeals to logos so this quote appeals to logos. To conclude, Frederick Douglass uses metaphors and personal anecdotes to appeal to the three rhetorical appeals Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. His book Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is filled with examples of these appeals. Personal anecdotes give him Ethos, Parallel structure appeals to Pathos, and logical thinking appeals to Logos.