Mrs. Li's

HELP! I Don't Understand this Narrative!

 

 

The Study Guide

Frederick Douglass Study Guide

 

SOAPS

Speaker= Frederick Douglass

Audience= White America

Occasion= 1845 (Pre-Civil War)

Purpose= To speak out against slavery

Subject= Slavery

Tone= Formal (Academic)

 

What is a Rhetorical Device?

Any of your Rhetorical Terms, but for the purposes of this test, pay special attention to Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

 

What is a Syntactical Device?

Loose sentence, Asyndeton, Polysyndeton, Parallelism,  Repetition, Sentence Structure, Balanced Sentences, Antimetabole, Antithesis.

 

 

How does Frederick Douglass use Ethos?

Ethos is the establishment of authors' credibility and authority to write about a topic. According to teaching resources developed by Nicole Schubert of the Yale National Initiative, Douglass' narrative was a groundbreaking work because slaves had never been able to speak about their experiences. For example, Douglass begins to build his ethos in the opening of chapter one when he says that he doesn't know his birthday, unlike white citizens, who know all the details of their lives. Beginning with this fact establishes that Douglass can be trusted because of his direct personal experience.

 

How does Frederick Douglass use Pathos?

Pathos is the author's appeal to the audience's emotions. The writing resource site Writing Commons states that emotional appeal uses language in a way that helps audiences empathize with the author. Throughout the narrative, Douglass describes his experiences in a way that lets audiences feel the indignity of being owned by another person. For example, Douglass recounts the experience of watching the slaveholder whip his aunt until she was covered in blood and the pleasure the slaveholder seemed to take in it. The graphic description of her abuse makes readers feel the same anger Douglass must have experienced.

 

How does Frederick Douglass use Logos?

used logos to his advantage to persuade his audiences to take action and join the cause to abolish slavery and later to treat black people as equals with thoughts, feelings, and goals just like white people.

 

Example: Approaching the end of chapter three, I found this: "I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer, nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false." (Douglass, 33). He says that whenever someone asked him if his master was a nice person, well he wouldn't respond negatively - I mean he was a slave, he HAD to watch out for what he said - but he also wouldn't lie completely. To me, this is something very logical, very obvious. If he were to say bad things about his master, he would probably get killed or sold. This is why I consider that quote as logos.

 

What Syntactical Devices does he use?

He uses a lot of complex sentences and loose sentences in order to show his education level. His diction is very formal and his style is very academic.

 

What is his “call to action”?

To show the horrors of slavery and to discourage the practice of slavery.

 

 

 

 

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