Douglass Persuasion

After reading this article, I have now gotten an idea of what pathos, ethos, and logos are, and I am now more familiar with the art of persuasion. Furthermore, I have been able to spot these techniques in my readings, including that of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Franklin Douglass' memoir is filled with pathos. For instance, a line which conveys this technique perfectly is: "The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death." If you are not familiar with pathos, I'll elaborate why this qualifies as it. Pathos is essentially pulling on heart strings, searching for sympathy. The way Douglass described the other slave's arrest was such that made the reader feel sympathy towards him.

Ethos is the "gut" of rhetoric. It relies on reputation and the image of something unto the audience, and uses both as persuasive tools. Franklin Douglass doesn't use this device as readily as pathos, but it is still fairly easy to find examples. It is especially easy to find ethos when Douglass describes the masters' superiority, like in, "Indeed, it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others." This plays with the reputation of the masters, specifically in the slaves eyes, and therefore is an example of ethos.

Finally, logos, the brain rhetoric, is nowhere near as abundant as the other two devices in the book. However, Douglass does use logos to speak about state law: "I speak advisedly when I say this,-that killing a slave, or any coloured person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community." Here, Douglass' use of facts ensures that this is an example of logos. Douglass is not trying to tug on the hearts of the audience, nor is he relying on te reputation of anyone, he is simply stating facts to make a point.

What was Wrong with Humanity?

There are many sides to a story. We are so used to hearing the most convenient side of things, that when the crude reality is unveiled to us for the first time, we sit, filled with awe and amazement at how deceived we had been before.

This, precisely, is what I felt while reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. There is a tremendous amount of pain and grief that is iterated in this book. This reminiscing of Douglass' past is a colossal collection of the suffering that he and other slaves endured, and it penetrates through my skin, worming its way into my soul as I cease uttering the words inked into the paper.

So little was revealed to me about slavery, before reading this. Only things like "it's bad," and vague thoughts on its history had been revealed to me, as if there was nothing more to say. But these first two chapters hold so much emotion, so much real emotion, that I saw myself having to pause frequently to take in all the feeling behind the text. This narrative is so tangible, that the cruelty and savagery that is explained in it come out of the reading and hit me head on, emotionally.

I couldn't imagine ever being put in Douglass', or any other slave's, situation. Not knowing who my father was, or even worse, knowing it could be the man torturing me, would drown me in a melancholic muse that would eventually drive me to despair. Knowing that I would only see my mother in the darkness of the night, hidden from everyone so that no harm would come. And, not being able to live freely, in a world so beautiful, yet eclipsed by the malice of white men. Disturbing.

And so to finish, this narrative left me with one overwhelming thought: what was wrong with humanity?

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost reading