In his
narrative, Douglass's intent is to convince white audiences of the horrors
and evil of slavery. He uses literary devices to convey the inhumanity of an institution in
which one group of people has total power over another. These devices include
, point-of-view, and
dichotomy.
Douglass uses vivid
imagery to convey to his audience the reality of the life of a
slave. He doesn't just state that slaves were whipped: he describes it using sensory details so
that readers can feel the pain and humiliation of the slave. He writes:
I have seen Colonel Lloyd make old Barney, a man between fifty and
sixty years of age, uncover his bald head, kneel down upon the cold, damp ground, and receive
upon his naked and toil-worn shoulders more than thirty lashes at the time.
Douglass always tells his story from the
point-of-view of the slaves, and he uses this technique to dispel
comforting myths that whites tell themselves about slavery not being so bad. For example, he
writes in chapter two that...
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