narrative of the life of frederick douglass

A detailed Summary of narrative of the life of frederick douglass

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there are two prominent motives for why Douglass wrote the story of his life. The primary reason for writing his story is targeted at the slaveholders and powerful people of New England, where the abolitionist movement was strongest. Douglass wanted the people in power to realize how barbaric slavery is and how cruel the slaveholders were. His secondary motive was geared towards the literate slaves of America that were able to get a hold of his book and read it. He wanted the slaves to realize that they should not accept their condition as slaves and should stand up for themselves. Douglass demonstrates his second motive on pages 78 and 79 when he physically fights against Mr. Covey. Douglass viewed this event as a turning point in his career as a slave. For the following six months, Mr. Covey never laid a hand upon him again.

The readers of Douglass's narrative, or the audience he was writing for, were the two groups of people named in the above paragraph. His book is a terrible account of his slave life and it shows the cruelty of slave owners as well as producing a sympathetic feeling to any reader. Therefore, the book would be a marvelou

This was just one of the horrible whippings and detailed descriptions that Douglass provides to the reader in his story. The language he uses contains words of dark meaning such as: blood, heart rendering, shrieks, gory, etc... The intended audience, after reading this, must feel extreme sympathy for the slaves and hopefully take it among his/her self to reject slavery. By use of language and detailed descriptions, Douglass's narrative is very persuasive. An excerpt from an introductory essay titled, "Psalm of Freedom", says,

In conclusion, after reading Douglass's narrative his intentions are quite clear and he does a good job of using language, persuasion, and believable context, to achieve his objectives. Douglass was a down to earth man who suffered greatly during his years of enslavement and when freed continued his fight to finally end slavery.

Along with being persuasive, Douglass is very believable in his story. He does not seem to exaggerate through his descriptions and provides, what seems to be an accurate truth about the masters he has encountered through his life. He describes one of the masters, Mr. Gore, as "...artful, cruel, and obdurate...He was one of those who could torture the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of the slave, into impudence, and would treat it accordingly...He was cruel enough to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience" (Douglass, 51). This description becomes extremely accurate w

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Approximate Word count = 1054
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People