Frederick Douglass’s Narrative :: Essays Papers

Frederick Douglasss Narrative In Frederick Douglasss Narrative, Douglas himself narrates the saucy using recital telling to bring both the expresser into the drool, and the authorship into focus. Through his narration, Douglass also uses narrative strategies like anecdotes, and plot twists. Even with it beness a true story, Douglass brings the readers attention to a peak with these techniques making the story interesting and appealing.The most influential technique used by Douglass is story telling. He uses little stories, or stories-within-a-story, to make the reader pay attention. With descriptive tales of the plantations he worked on, the beatings and torture of slaves, and learning to read and write, he not completely gets the attention of the readers, but he gets them to understand his point of view. For example at the beginning of the narrative Douglass tells a story of his aunt being beating, I reach often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart -rendering shrieks of an own aunt of mine, (3). He goes on and gets even more than graphic and descriptive, The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. (4). Also too soon in the novel, Douglass writes of the plantation he grew up on, There were no beds granted the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, (6). Soon after being sold to Mr. and Mrs. Auld, he was taught the alphabet. He uses this experience to show to his audience that he is very literate despite his masters wishes, If you teach that nigger how to read there would be no keeping him, (20). So this story shows both(prenominal) more cruelty from his master. Just for reading he would be sold, which shows dirty treatment to the reader.Another similar technique used by Douglass very effectively is anecdotes. He uses anecdotes throughout the story to bring a ironical or interesting little side story into the readers minds. One neat examp le of this is when he is talking about slave songs, I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as secern of their contentment and happiness. (9). This shows the readers of his concerns by just adding a brief story in to interest the reader.