Zenon Hernandez

Ms.Carroll
Mr.Kelly

Douglass Theme Essay

Frederick Douglass was an African American who was a slave for more than 20 years
then escapes and writes a memoir about the things he had seen and been through during his
years as a slave. Douglass in his memoir believes in racial equality, because slave owners
thought they were superior and they wanted to keep their power. He reveals this message
through his use of characterization of Mr.Covey and violent diction.
To begin with Douglass Believes in racial equality because he was an abolitionist
himself so he reveals his message through his use of characterization about Mr.Covey. In page
46 Douglass describes the type of person his new owner was in the text it says “Mr.Covey gave
me a severe whipping,cutting my back,causing blood to run,and raising ridges on my flesh as
large as my little finger” Douglass describes how mean Covey was and what he had been
through as living with him.
Second of all Douglass uses Violent diction is his memoir to point out the fact that
Mr.Covey was a mean slave owner so Douglass in his memoir writes about his fight with Covey
but uses violent diction to embarrass Covey saying he got beat up by a young Douglass. In the
book page 53 it says “I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where i touched him” This
furthermore proves my message that Douglass uses violent diction in his memoir because he
exaggerates the fact that where he touched Covey that he would bleed but adding on Douglass
did that to embarrass Covey
As a conclusion Douglass in his memoir believes in racial equality, because slave
owners thought they were superior and they wanted to keep their power. He reveals this
message through his use of characterization of Mr.Covey and violent diction. This Relates to the
real world because many Publishers use characterization to talk describe others like Donald
Trump or any other person.