Frederick Douglass Learning To Read Rhetorical Analysis

Most adults can recall a time when they were learning the alphabet and looking through picture books, but they never had that right taken away from them. In his piece “Learning to Read” Frederick Douglass fights against the odds and educates himself. Douglass uses his command of the language and symbolism to convince slave owners to end their malicious ways towards the enslaved Africans. Learning to read and write allows Douglass to open doors for his future by helping him identify what his and other slave’s rights are. Douglass uses his credibility, logic, and emotional appeal to effectively show the audience of how he educates himself, how slavery is not natural, and how certain groups have sympathy for him which all prove his purpose that …show more content…
Douglass’ slave owner Mistress Hughes, was “a kind and tender-hearted woman” who treated him “as one human being ought to treat another” (404). This demonstrates that slavery does not come naturally to all people and that it took some time for everyone to get accustomed to. The first step that exhibits changes in Miss Hughes’s behavior is when she accepts her husband’s wishes by not teaching young Douglass how to read. Before the changes begin to occur, Mistress Hughes gave bread, food, and comfort for all those who needed it. That transposes as told by Douglass “slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became a stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tigerlike fierceness” (404). It can be assumed that the largest influence on Mistress Hughes’s demeanor would be The Women’s Right Movement, which also occurs in the 1850’s. This idea explains why “she was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seemed anxious to do better”, because she wanted to prove to her husband that she was not just his property but that she was important and could do just as well if not better than he did (Douglass 404). This comes down to logic because the author is showing us that if you need to change your behavior towards others just to follow a trend, then that trend is not justifiable. Next, Douglass warms the heart of the readers as well as the Irishmen with his emotional

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Frederick Douglass Learning To Read Rhetorical Analysis

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