Marius Martello

Ms. Rusinowski

Honors English 10

3 November 2020

How Slavery Corrupts

Being put in a position of power can cause even the most tenderhearted of people to lapse

into a state of vexation. Frederick Douglass utilizes parallelism and imagery in this passage to

convey his message that slavery corrupts people to the reader. His purpose in writing this

selection was to inform the reader on the personality of one of the kinder masters he worked

under and explain to them how working in the slave industry made her a more hostile figure.

Douglass relies on parallelism to help describe new master as she first arrived at the

plantation where Douglass was enslaved. The sentence structure of the first paragraph is a form

of parallelism because a multitude of the phrases used start with the word, “she,” and go on to

describe something about his new master. Some expressions from this paragraph include, “She

had never had a slave under her,” “she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living,”

and “She was by trade a weaver,” all of which are quite similar in structure and convey the point

that Douglass’s master was an independent woman who had not had experience with slaves

before. Douglass also portrays his new master as a compassionate character by reflecting on how

even the meanest slave was, “put fully at ease in her presence.” This use of parallelism offers the

reader an easy on the eye way mechanism to gain insight into how Douglass’s master was like

before she went into the slave industry.

 Douglass also employs imagery to deliver his message to the reader. In the second

paragraph, he narrates his master’s fall from grace to anger and resentment after being at the

plantation for a while. He uses imagery in phrases such as, “That cheerful eye, under the

influence of slavery, soon became red with rage,” and, “…that angelic face gave place to that of

a demon,” to paint a picture for the reader of an irate demon whose eyes glow red with hate. This

is a stark contrast to the first paragraph where she was depicted as an innocent soul who truly

cared about all people’s wellbeing. This disparity also comes as a surprise to the reader who

would not have expected such a drastic and imminent change in personality, which helps support

Frederick Douglass’s claim that people who are exposed to slavery become more hostile and

indignant by vibrantly depicting the variable personality of someone before they had been

exposed to slavery and power, and after they had been a slave master for a period of time.

In conclusion, Frederick Douglass wrote this passage to send the message that no matter

how kind a person may be, being exposed to slavery will dampen that kindness and a hatred will

rise within them. He relied on the rhetorical device of parallelism to explain his new masters

caring personality in a concise, accurate manner, and used vivid imagery to paint a picture of the

furious “demon,” that his master turned into once she had been a slave master for decent duration

of time. Douglass also used two extremely juxtaposing paragraphs to bring to light both

personalities of a person before they were exposed to slavery, and after they were exposed to

slavery to reaffirm his message that slavery can cause anyone to become evil and ignoble.