The Narrative of Frederick Douglass

Tori Cobble

Frederick Douglass is a rare author who writes about slavery and has actually experienced it. As
talked about in the very beginning of his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, he was born in 1817 or 1818, not knowing his exact age. This introduction to the book
shows Pathos in a palpable way, and promptly grabs the readers attention to the little things we
often look past. In this autobiography, Douglass uses an appreciable amount of rhetorical devices
that include parallelism, chiasmus, and anadiplosis to all engage the reader in his experiences
through slavery and deliberately positions the reader in the mind and thoughts of a slave. This
leads to Douglasss argument that slavery is more than just forced labor.
Parallelism is found very often in his narrative to emphasize pathos. Parallelism is used to
emphasize a point, and in this narrative, is used to stir the emotions of the reader. No words, no
tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose
(page 10). This quote shows that masters and overseers never showed or gave mercy to the slaves
that they whipped. It also ties with pathos to represent that the masters and overseers as having
no emotion and had iron hearts. This quote connects to pathos because it makes the reader feel
apoplectic towards the overseer and wretched for the slaves. I think the quote was cleverly
assembled just to touch the feelings of the readers while describing the emotions of the overseer
or master.
Douglass also says, If a slave was convicted of any high misdemeanor, became unmanageable,
or evinced a determination to run away. . . (Page 12). This is also parallelism which shows that
slaves were often accused of acting differently even if they were fine. Slaves were treated
inequitable without actual proof. This quote proved that in a way, slaves were stripped of their
freedom of expression and those who dared to show any, had consequences. In which again goes
back to pathos, having the readers think about just how unfair slaves were treated.
Along with pathos, Douglass uses chiasmus. Chiasmus can be seen mostly in a speech which is
why using chiasmus in his narrative consisted of absolute technique. What he most dreaded,
that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to
be carefully shunned, was to me a great good (chapter 6). In this quote, Frederick talks about
his slave master, Mr. Auld. He explains how Mrs. Auld taught him things about reading and
writing and her husband hated that she gave him a little education. This quote proves that slaves
were not even thought of as humans and that they should not have an education as simple as
being able to read or write. Pathos falls into this quote because as reading, the advantage of being
able to read and write is just another thing the reader should be very appreciative of.

Chiasmus was used very astutely in his narrative. His words were in perfect keeping with his
looks, and his looks were in perfect keeping with his words (page 17). This quote represents
chiasmus because both parts relate to each other. This quote cleverly has the reader imagine that
the master is as mean as they look. This quote ties to pathos because Douglass allows the reader
to develop their own perspective towards the readers. Although the reader develops their own
opinion about the person Douglass described, Douglass uses a great deal of pathos which leans
the reader to developing a negative perception of the man.

A third rhetorical device that can be found in the narrative is anadiplosis. Although anadiplosis
can often be confused with chiasmus, they are different. Since they are often confused by one
another, it is innocuous to say that Douglass may perhaps have used repetition throughout his
narrative to emphasize pathos. He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place
for such a man (page 17). Douglass cleverly describes the plantation and Mr. Gore within one
sentence. This sentence reveals that Mr. Gores character, matched that of the character of the
plantation. Depending on the perspective of the reader, Mr. Gore and the plantation could be
perceived as pleasant or harrowing.

While reading the narrative, anadiplosis seems like the most difficult to connect to pathos
without careful thinking. The children were then called like so many pigs, and like so many
pigs they would come and devour the mush :( page 19). This quote reveals that even slave
children were treated as if they were animals. Douglass compares the children to pigs, providing
the reader to visualize the scene of when pigs are being fed. Pathos ties to this quote because it
makes the reader feel disturbed that young children could be dehumanized, and that this routine
is usual. This would then lead the reader to have a negative perception of slavery, which would
later lead to the reader agreeing with his argument

In conclusion, Douglasss argument that slavery is more than just forced labor can be proven
through this narrative. He supports his argument by using an appreciable amount of rhetorical
devices that include parallelism, chiasmus, and anadiplosis. While also, tugging at the hearts of
the readers with pathos. There were many historical ramifications of this narrative, it had many
people realizing that slavery was horrible, thus leading to abolitionist who supported Douglass.