Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was an American slave you wrote an autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. The book was the true life story of Douglass from when he was a slave to after he was freed. This section of the narrative tells us the hardships and the different types of suffering that Douglass went through. In the way that he describes the different types of physical and mental abuse; Douglass brings us to the scene from his slave life. The writing in the 3rd paragraph isolates the tone from the rest of the selection by using a voice with feeling instead of just describing the situation. This gives us the feeling of the pain behind the words and emphasizes that mental abuse is worse than physical abuse.

The insipid language, in the beginning of the passage, that is used to describe the “breaking” that the slaves go through is greatly contrasted with the mournful and nostalgic descriptions in the 3rd paragraph. The lines “You [boats] are loosed from your moorings… I am fast in my chains … I am confined in bands of iron … Could I but swim!” taken from the passage emphasize Douglass' want to be free. The dull descriptions in the beginning of the section, of the place he was enslaved to and the beating received by his master's overseers, seem to show that he didn't feel this part of slavery as deeply, but pushed it down and made himself as dull as his language.

An apostrophe - a literary plea or celebration - can be used to show the reader a passion or strength coming from the writer or a character in the writing. When using “O that I were free! … O that I could also go…” ...