Douglass: His fantastic use of Imagery and Word Choice

     Frederick Douglass uses a ton of imagery and word choice in order to convince his readers to become active abolitionists. He starts off immediately grabbing the audience by the heartstrings as he talks about himself as a child, not even knowing his birthday.

     His use of words like "odiousness" and other bigger sophisticated words shows his readers that he is educated, and this would likely appeal to a higher white class who has had an education. He also uses word choice to show how horrific his life experiences were, with words like "cruel" and: fiendish barbarity." 

    Douglass also has an enormous amount of figurative language in his writing, such as "the field of blood and blasphemy," and " the rapture that flashed through my soul." Both of these artful phrases pull his audience in deeper than before and allow them to truly see his emotions and experiences, which could compel them to join his cause. 

    Douglass has an interesting mix of high-level diction and figurative language/imagery that details his life as a slave. This style is what most likely gained him, supporters, as his sophistication called to a higher class and those who might not have believed slaves could become educated. His imagery is what really drives his point home however, as he walks his audience through all the horror he has seen, and using figurative language, he shows them exactly how it felt to be there in that moment.