In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
Douglass uses emotional manipulation on a few occasions to affect his reading
audience. First, Douglass makes an apostrophe to the passing ships in Baltimore. He
compares his life to the "lives" of the ships, stating that the ships are free while he
remains in bondage. The apostrophe has a tone of remorse as Douglass makes a bid for
freedom.
In another part of the narrative, Douglass tells
the reader about his grandmother and how she was expelled from the plantation and sent
to live in a house by herself in the woods. Douglass laments this treatment of his
grandmother, a woman who spent her entire life rearing the slave children on the
plantation only to be sent out into the wilderness to starve to
death.
These two passages present a shift in tone from the
majority of the narrative which is written in a more objective tone and style. The
apostrophe to the ships and the description of Douglass's grandmother grab the hearts of
the reading audience and sway favor for Douglass as the
narrator.
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