The most influential technique used by Douglass is story telling. He uses little stories, or stories-within-a-story, to make the reader pay attention. With descriptive tales of the plantations he worked on, the beatings and torture of slaves, and learning to read and write, he not only gets the attention of the readers, but he gets them to understand his point of view. For example at the beginning of the narrative Douglass tells a story of his aunt being beating, "I have often been awa

Another similar technique used by Douglass very effectively is anecdotes. He uses anecdotes throughout the story to bring a humorous or interesting little side story into the readers' minds. One good example of this is when he is talking about slave songs, "I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness." (9). This shows the readers of his concerns by just adding a brief story in to interest the reader. Another good anecdote used by Douglass was with his move to Baltimore. "She was going to give me a pair of trousers, which I should not put on unless I got all the off me." (17), this is a little story, nothing big in his life but he uses it to show an aspect of his move to Baltimore.

Finally, he uses great plot twists to keep the reader on the edge of

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Approximate Word count = 599
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)