Johns 1

Rian Johns

Woelke

AP Lang

18 September 2019

Frederick Douglass Close Read #1

In an excerpt from ​The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,

Frederick Douglass explains the last few days of his grandmother's life. The purpose of

Douglass’s narrative is to show the hidden truths to slavery. By using rhetorical devices, such as

the repetition of a phrase throughout the passage, to explain his grandmother’s condition, and the

type of syntax, interrupted order, to emphasize the very last moments of his grandmother's life,

Douglass is able to convey his message of the cruel, inhumane and unjust treatment of slaves.

To allow his audience to understand the truths about slavery, Douglass uses the example

of his grandmother and the end of her life. Although she was loyal to her master, hardworking

and a slave for the entirety of her life, Douglass’s “poor old grandmother” was “left all alone” to

die (Douglass). After being treated as if she were anything but human for her whole life, she was

left all alone, with no one by herside, to die. By repeating the phrase “poor old grandmother”

throughout his writing, Douglass is able to identify that his grandmother was poorly treated and

poorly cared for. “She stands--she sits--she staggers--she falls--she groans--she dies” (Douglass).

Slowly and painfully Douglass’s grandmother dies. All alone, she dies. Douglass uses dashes to

slow down his reader. The pauses forces the reader to take in what has happened and understand

that the end of his grandmother’s life was not pleasant but more of a struggle. Douglass used

rhetorical devices to portray his message that slavery was horriable and inhumane.