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Amber Agusti

Ms. Kepler

AP Language 11

11 January 2018

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass​ Chapter 10 Rhetorical Analysis

In his novel, ​Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass​, Frederick Douglass uses a

dramatic tone to display to all readers his journey. To make his point on the particular pernicious

aspect of slavery, Douglass used tautology, personification, and pathos.

To make readers understanding of the southern culture and slave treatment broaden,

Douglass uses various phrases all coming back to one notion: the southern slaveholders were

using the holiest of traditions to justify cruelty. In displaying religious slaveholders’ misdeeds

Douglass states, “I assert most unhesitatingly slaveholders find the strongest protection”

(Douglass 67). By restating these epic faults, Douglass is utilizing tautology. Thus, emphasizing

his point that the justification of slavery is misguided as slavery is degrading and harmful to

nearly all involved. The explanation on many accounts and in different terms also brings it into

more significance for the reader as well as makes it more understandable through relatability.

Through the brutality of Douglass’s slaveholders, the countless malevolent portions of

slavery are consistently displayed. Whenever reading about slavery, whipping and barbarity are

nearly always existent. Recalling an event of his own punishment, Douglass writes, “I was

covered with blood. My hair was all clotted with dust and blood, my shirt was stiff with blood”

(Douglass 59). From the extent of Douglass’s injuries, readers can infer that he had been brutally

beaten. This and stories similar are told often, and the pathos is evident. The tragedy of his
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condition itself provides an exact representation of how awful slavery was and what it has done

to so many people. Thus, filling readers with sympathy with those involved. Douglass’s pathos

use brings out the feelings in readers so that they can conclude that slavery is evil.

In a final example of his eloquent language, Douglass utilizes personification. As it is

known, death was not hard to come by in the slave system. When describing just another day,

Douglass says, “Thus twice, in one short day, I escaped death, by the nearest chance” (Douglass

52). In this reference, Douglass is personifying death as it constantly comes to get slaves.

Luckily, Douglass has escaped this force. By personifying death, Douglass is making this force

come alive to readers; it makes them better comprehend the reality of the situation. This is very

operative in getting readers to feel emotions necessary to understand through examples the theme

and the importance of it.

With the use of tautology, pathos, and personification, Frederick Douglass effectively

portrays to readers the devastation that slavery caused. Douglass’s well-thought-out language

was powerful in convincing readers of the particular pernicious aspect of the slave system.
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Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. ​Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave​. The

Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.