Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Ashley Scopilliti

Mrs. McCaffrey

English11

7th Period

16th November, 2012

Frederick Douglass

This story, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is about a man named Frederick Douglass that was an abused slave that desperately wanted to be free. He uses the Rhetorical appeals pathos, logos, and ethos to tell expresses his thoughts and feelings about his life so that his readers would know how it was in the South.

Frederick Douglass uses pathos in his story because he wants to show us how he felt and what he went through during this time. "I did not, when a slave, understands the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within heard as those without might see and hear" (Douglass 57). With this in mind, he shows that he never sang the abruptly songs from his heart because the more he sang or thought about singing, the more he desperately he wanted to be free. "I used to steal a bag which was used for carrying corn to the mill. I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp clay floor with my head in and feet out" (Douglass 71-72). When he says this, it came to mind as he had to steal a corn bag, just to survive. Frederick Douglass shows so much emotion that it comes out to be as if he had his heart ripped out of his chest.

Overall, Frederick Douglass got what he wanted and became free. He went through a lot to become what he wanted. I feel as if it was a horrid time, and that it must be hard for him to write and relive those moments that he went through and the horrible scenes that he had seen in the past. To me, Frederick Douglass was a hero and for that, he deserves to be well known as "The Man that helped abolish slavery".