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Fredrick Douglass essay



Escaping from slavery in 1838 had to be a treacherous experience; escaping slavery at any time would be! Most slaves couldn’t read or write, but one slave, Fredrick Douglass, broke that barrier and many more. In this particular writing he uses a wide-open state of mind to clearly get his thoughts across. He does this by using a wide variety of diction along with sentence fluency. An example can be seen in every sentence of every paragraph. “I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust. It was a most painful situation; and, to understand it, one must needs experience it, or imagine himself in similar circumstances.” His narrative point of view about slavery, or rather first person experience on slavery, is expressed throughout as he explains slavery as being both life and death. How someone can write with such strong emotion, is beyond me, but Douglass does more than that. He captures and captivates the reader into thinking about and imagining his experiences.

Through the use of concrete language, Fredrick Douglass, relates his readers to the life of a slave while at the same time explaining how one could never understand unless he experiences the hardships of slavery on his own. Fredrick Douglass has such a talent at pulling his readers into the writing and making them envision what is happening, that anyone could fall in love with his writing. An example can be found in,” There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect stranger…”

Another common figure of speech found many times within the passage is the use of metaphors. Some are seen in,”I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions”, “…being seized upon by his fellow-man, as the hideous crocodile seizes upon his prey!”, and “…among fellow-men, yet feeling as if in the midst of wild beasts.” By using such metaphors,...