Frederick Douglass Essay

In “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass uses many rhetorical

strategies, especially in paragraphs seven and eight when he describes how he learned to

read and write. A few of these rhetorical strategies are, an Aristotelian appeal of pathos

and repetition.

Douglass tries to connect with the reader on an emotional and sympathetic side,

For example when he says, “I often found myself regretting my own existence and

wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should

have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed.” Saying this

hits people’s emotions and makes them feel sorry for him. They think of how awful of a

struggle it was for him to want to wish himself dead. You think of all the turmoil and

catastrophe he went through. How he felt empty inside because of something that a lot of

people in America take advantage of, knowing how to read and write.

Douglass uses the repetition of the word abolitionist in paragraph seven. In the

text, he talks about how he wanted to know what the word meant because he heard it so

often. For example, “Every little while, I could hear something about abolitionists. It was

some time before I found what the word meant.” Then, he goes and says it again. “…it

was spoken to be the fruit of abolition.” He also uses it again further in the paragraph.

However, what this repetition is used for is to exaggerate or single this word out to show
his dedication to learning how to read and write. He tells you how he even looked it up in

a dictionary and looked through city papers trying to gain that knowledge.

Using rhetorical strategies gave this paper its connection with readers from

emotions and repeating a word to stress its importance. Douglass really used the phrase,

“give the reader what they want,” to his best abilities.