Getting up to date with: Frederick Douglass Reponse
In his autobiography Frederick Douglas tactfully persuades his critics- that being his white, Northern and slave owning readership. Douglass's method of persuasion became his honest, straight-forward narrative that revisits his past as a slave. Not only does Douglass avoid the use of highly emotional content, but also avoids criticizing or stating his own personal commentary on Northerners and instead, provides a detailed account of slave life. Douglass gained credibility among his white readership through demonstrating qualities of honesty and trust within the narrative. for example, Douglass is careful to note his respect of the privacy of the mentioned in the course of the text. Aside from making a case for his credibility and truth telling, by sharing details like this Douglass becomes viewed even more admirably, which in turn lends itself to the portrayal of his slave owners, the cruel treatment of blacks, and the overall intensity of the story.
The following passage demonstrates a series of short paratactic clauses within reversed style sentences, revealing a pair of contradicting ideas contradicting. This grammatical choice mirrors one of the thematic patterns within his story. One example of this "reversed symmetry" in the text is found through the concept that the more knowledge Douglass gained, the more he began to suffer and leading to feelings of despair.
Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.
I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed. (Chapter VII)
