Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave written by, none other than himself, Frederick Douglass presents to the reader several instances in which the fellow slaves that he knew, a vast majority of them family and friends, were whipped nearly to death and were inflicted upon the most horrible crimes known to man. Through these stories from his past, the reader is shown how cruel and emotionally scarring to the individual slavery was and why it should never have happened. By the end of his narration, Douglass manages to express to the reader through his appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, the need for slavery, as inhumane and unjust as it was, to come to an end. Douglass appeals to ethos through personification to convince readers that slavery was far more painful than anyone could ever imagine, encouraging
the abolition of slavery. Throughout the novel, Douglass provides a wide range of stories from his past that delve into his personal experiences as a slave. He describes that writing and thinking of the songs that the slaves would sing caused “…an expression of feeling” to “find its way down his (my) cheek” (Douglass 30). Through the use of personification, Douglass portrays to the reader his involuntary response to the memory he had of the sorrowful songs that the slaves would sing in despair. Thus, through this divulging of his inner emotions, Douglass portrays to the reader the traumatizing effect of slavery on his person and of his involvement as a slave. This side note into his personal thoughts and emotions is an appeal to ethos as it shows to the reader that he is a credible source that witnessed heart-wrenching emotions of sorrow from fellow slaves that still affects his spirit, therefore his argument to abolish slavery is clear. Douglass appeals to pathos through an allusion that expresses to the reader the need for people to step up and convince influential members of society to stop slavery for good. He describes the beating of a lame young woman by her master, Captain Auld, who quotes this passage of scripture, “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes”(Douglass 67-68). He uses this allusion to the Bible in an effort to cast an ironic look onto how the slaveholders justified their inhumane actions in the hopes of persuading his readers to not follow in the footsteps of this cruelty. Douglass’ purpose in using this allusion to appeal to pathos was to show the reader the ridiculous way that slavery was justified in an effort to prove it unjustifiable. Douglass uses an analogy that appeals to logos and reveals his rational fear of becoming a slave again in the hopes of helping the reader realize that the freeing of the slaves would not be enough to fix the damage done and ensure the safety of the slaves.
Douglass expresses this fear when he states that he “…was afraid to speak to any one for fear of speaking to the wrong one”, comparing “money-loving kidnappers” to “ferocious beasts of the forests” through an analogy that leads the reader to the conclusion that even though a slave can escape slavery that the threat of it is still always ever present (Douglass 113). This analogy and his appeal to logos help the reader to realize that Douglass is a logical man who thinks of the possibilities of slavery and is cautious to prevent them, in turn, showing the reader that even though a slave can break free from the ties of slavery that it never really leaves the slave truly free. Therefore, Douglass convinces the reader that the fight for the abolishment of slavery would be a long one, but one that should be
fought. Douglass’ novel, as gruesome and horrifyingly shocking as he made it, manages to express to the reader the reasons why slavery needed to come to an end. Throughout his narration, the reader is exposed to all sorts of horrible stories related through the appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos that terrify and stun to the point of causing an understanding of exactly why slavery was wrong and why Douglass’ purpose in ending the cruelty of slavery is viable and something to be fought for. In our world today, we see the same things Douglass wrote about through the oppression and discrimination of several races and people of different kinds that show that it is never right in any circumstance to abuse people like how the slaves were abused and that it should always be ended no matter what, or else the consequences are so much worse.