Frederick Douglass Figurative Language Analysis

In Douglass discussion of slave songs, irony was utilized to point out the misconceptions of his readers who were for the most part, Northerners. Singing is usually associated with joy, but Douglass pointed out that slaves sang when they were unhappy, and that their songs reflected the sorrows of the heart. “They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension” (Douglass B: 1188). According to Douglass, singing was a type of relief, helping slaves deal with their plight. It was Douglass’s intent to challenge his readers to understand the deeper meaning of the songs. To outsiders, the songs were “apparently incoherent”, and Douglass himself did not fully understand their meaning when he was a slave (Douglass B: 1188).
This is powerful because he is confronting the people regarding their actions which go against their own beliefs. When reading Chapter 4, the figurative language and Pathos comes to mind. The entire chapter is full of descriptions of the terrible beatings and horror the slaves endured. Douglass said this about Mr. Hick who murdered his wife’s cousin, “mangling her person in the most horrible manner, breaking her nose and breastbone with a stick, so that the poor girl expired in a few hours” (Douglass B: 1192). The power in this case is the emotionally charged writing that makes the reader almost cringe and makes the reader feel the same anger Douglass must have experienced. My last example would be ethos found in Chapter 1 when Douglass stated, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it” (Douglass B: 1182). Ethos appeals to the writer’s credibility and this statement established that Douglas was authentic because of his personal experience. His account further mentioned that white children knew their ages and birthday and he could not understand why he did not have the same