Fredrick Douglass

A main component of Frederick Douglass’s writing style is his syntactical variety. He uses many telegraphic sentences to drive home his purpose. For example, in the first paragraph, Line 11 Douglass writes, “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me.” This telegraphic sentence helps the reader visualize exactly what Douglass’s condition was. He is literally broken as a human being. He also uses paratactic sentences to reinforce his purpose yet again. H

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Douglass’s diction is another vital component of his style. He uses repetition to strengthen his purpose when he writes, “Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night. Douglass fills his reading with literary devices to gain the reader’s sympathy by making the issue clearer to the reader.

Similarly, Douglass uses numerous literary devices in his third paragraph, only many times more than in the rest of the passage. He writes, “Alas! Betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll…I am in the hottest hell of unending slavery…I am confined in bands of iron. He relates all of the horrors of slave life, and justifies his escape of it. He definitely accomplishes his purpose in this passage, by describing his suffering in great detail. The paragraph stands out because of its beginning, with dialogue. He goes so far as to question the very existence of God. He also uses figurative language such as metaphors and similes. In this third paragraph, he convinces himself to escape, he is as a madman, he claims, “I had as well be killed running as die standing. e writes, “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” This sentence simply reverberates with the cruelty of slavery. His third paragraph is distinguished from the rest of the passage in that the diction is so very rich. ” He relates to us how brutal life was as a slave, in the service of another human being, in bondage. He writes, “I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.

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Approximate Word count = 693
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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