Frederick Douglass Figurative Language Essay

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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass gives us understanding of the American slave system and how people were affected by it. It helps us understand why slavery should not reoccur.

The aspects Frederick Douglass brings to light are physical harm, education, and quality of human rights. Frederick Douglass reveals, “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped;”(Douglass) Douglass tells us about how slaveholders caused a lot of physical harm to the slaves. Douglass states, “...education and slavery were incompatible with each other.”(Douglass) This shows how in Douglass’s story people thought that slaves didn’t deserve education. The text says “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. “(Douglass) This tells us how the quality of human rights slaves had was low to none. Douglass helps us understand what it was like to be a slave, and his position on slavery tells us the difference between the people at that time. Frederick Douglass’s position differs from those who supported slavery because whilst he opposed it, they supported it. John Calhoun says in a speech, “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, …show more content…
In the narrative he describes the overseer as to having “stone-like coolness”. This shows how he uses a simile to help describe the overseer. Douglass also expressed that had he not left the plantation he would have “been confined in the galling chains of slavery”. This figurative language of a metaphor helps the audience picture slavery more vividly. In the narrative Frederick also conveys, “You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip!” In this statement he compares the ships in the harbor with his own life, using apostrophe. As well as using figurative language to prove his point Douglass uses rhetorical
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