Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Strageties

3709 Words15 Pages
Adam Kemp Mrs. Madden AP Language Arts November 4, 2012 Rhetorical Devices in Fredrick Douglass Ch.1 1. Simile: p.17 “larger part of slaves know as little of their birthdays as horses know of theirs.” He uses this simile to show how slaves were treated as property like a work horse would be. It also shows that slaves thought of themselves that way. 2. Biblical Allusion: p.19 “God cursed Ham.” In the bible, Noah punished his son Ham by banishing him and darkening his skin. This was the justification for the treatment of slaves for most people. 3. Parallelism:p.20 “ No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart.” He uses this device to show how merciless slaveholders could be to do such atrocities and be able to treat it like training a dog. 4. Paradox: p. 20 “whip her to make her scream, whip her to make her hush” He uses this device to show how futile a slave who had wronged his master was. The master could go on whipping forever and the slave had no control over it. 5. Metaphor: p.20 “it was the blood stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, that I was about to pass.” He uses this to show how much the whipping of his aunt traumatized him, and to show how horrible slavery was. Ch.2 1. Irony: p.23 “they find less difficulty from the want of beds than the want of sleep.” This is irony because it is more common to view slaves and poor people as not having beds, but the reality is that they suffered more from the lack of sleep. 2. Repetition p.24 “He was less cruel, less profane, and made less noise.” He uses repetition to emphasize the point that he was better than others, but the cruelty just occurred on a smaller scale. 3. Chiasmus: p.25 “They would sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous sentiment and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic

More about Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Strageties

Open Document