Frederick Douglass is amazing!

"I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion."

Close Reading Response:

When I finished reading this passage the first thing that came to my mind was how smart Douglass is. His diction in this piece, the strong language like: "I have often been utterly astonished'" and "It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake," makes his readers believe that he knows what he is talking about. Writers seldom use such strong and definite diction unless they really know what they are talking about and are positive they are right. The strong writing in this passage also create ethos. The first thing I noticed about this passage is that Douglass right away uses antithesis. He starts out this passage with a long descriptive sentence, then his second sentence is short and to the point saying that the beliefs people had, which were described in his firts sentence, were wrong. This opposition of long sentence then straight to short sentence really makes the short sentence catch your eye, and your mind. This is important because the whole point of this passage is to say that white men don't know black men, and that white men and black men are one in the same. This is stated very early in his antithesis which is also his second sentence. The words that I notice first are "utterly astonished". I don't hear these words used together often so when he put them together I got a feeling of how weird it was for him to hear that white men think slaves sing because they are happy without Douglass having to use weak adjectives like very. This builds up his ethos for me because it makes me feel like he not only knows what he is talking about, but also knows how to say it powerfully. Some sentences that stuck out to me were "The songs of the slaves represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears," and "The singing of a man cast upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion". These sentences stuck out to me because of the combination of their content and structure. Both of these sentences have pathos in them, but what really makes the pathos so strong is the way the sentences use comparisons. Comparing slave songs to an aching heart crying really strikes a heart string with me. It makes me want to reach out and try to comfort the slave, even though I have never known one. The only reason I want to reach out and comfort is because I can relate to the slave now. Just saying the slave sing because they are sad wouldn't help convince anyone that slavery should be gone. What makes the sentence so powerful is that the comparison given makes you able to relate to the slaves. Everyone has cried, so everyone can understand this comparison. Douglass's ability to write sophisticated, yet have everyone able to relate to a slave is genius. He is able to get you to feel emotions that slaves, on a much more grandious scale, would feel. By knowing this we see that slaves must be humans just like us. Because we are able to feel how they feel, slaves must be at least similar to us. This conclusion is what Douglass was hoping for. In this passage he wanted to get us to realize that slaves are human and slavery is wrong, to the point of inhuman if you are openminded. Since I have only read through chapter nine it is hard to say, but I think that this passage could be a microcosm to the book. Frederik Douglass was an escaped slave who was also an abolitionist. So far I have found this work to not only be a narrative, but also a persuasive book about why slavery is wrong. This passage supports that claim by saying that slaves are humans like you and me and they should have the same rights we have. He doesn't directly say this, but once you have read the passage and taken in the afore mentioned sentences you realize that slavery being wrong is the theme of this passage. In this passage is also saw an Age of Reason theme. Douglass says "I have often sung to drown my sorrow...". This supports the Age of Reason thought that men should be manly and sensitive. Saying that he could cry made Doulass an Age of Reason man which would create ethos with the white men and women to whom this writing was designed for.

Response to Patrick Henry Post

This passage starts with alliteration. "...it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions..." When you're talking about vowels, you're talking assonance. The alliteration helps us remember that we are only human and "indulge in illusions". Smart observation. Notice, though, that the real emphasis is on "illusions." The illusory nature of a hopeful solution is one of his central claims in this speech. At the end of this sentence Henry uses the word hope. Because of the alliteration in the sentence, the word hope really sticks out to the reader, or listener. I see. Interesting point. Perfect opportunity to connect this. Why does he want hope to stick out? What is he saying about hope? If anything, he wants to get rid of hopes. The next two sentences Henry uses rhetorical questions. These questions are also posed as parallel structure. They both start out with clauses, then a comma, then they finish with another clause. This is meant to inhance the rhetorical questions. The questions will make the listener think, and by adding parallel structure it makes you think even more. It's hard to follow your line of thinking here. How does the clause structure benefit him? You need to clarify tha tpoint. It makes us think even more because it links the two questions closer and in turn makes us compare the answers together. The langauge of ears hearing not and eyes seeing not is also Biblical. He suggests that men must focus not on eternity but on their time on earth ("temporal salvation"). This is a very smart tactic in a persuasive speech. The prior sentence is a general truth. No need to state the general. Keep it specific. Why does a specific tactic advance his spcific purpose? The first sentence and the last sentence in my passage also share a parallel structure. They both start out with a subject of sorts, and then finish with a statement of truth. This, like the questions, has our minds compare the two statements. I'm not following what you mean here. You'll have to cite specifics to be sure all that's going on in your fine brain is coming out clearly. Always be sure to take us from what you see to "so what," why it's important.
Another fascinating aspect of your passage is the allusion to the sirens. Throughout this speech, Henry portrays the king as someone duplicitious, ensnaring, and devious. This is in stark contrast to Henry himself, who is "willing to know the whole truth," as he tells us (ethos).

Patrick Henry

This passage starts with alliteration. "...it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions..." The alliteration helps us remember that we are only human and "indulge in illusions". At the end of this sentence Henry uses the word hope. Because of the alliteration in the sentence, the word hope really sticks out to the reader, or listener. The next two sentences Henry uses rhetorical questions. These questions are also posed as parallel structure. They both start out with clauses, then a comma, then they finish with another clause. This is meant to inhance the rhetorical questions. The questions will make the listener think, and by adding parallel structure it makes you think even more. It makes us think even more because it links the two questions closer and in turn makes us compare the answers together. This is a very smart tactic in a persuasive speech. The first sentence and the last sentence in my passage also share a parallel structure. They both start out with a subject of sorts, and then finish with a statement of truth. This, like the questions, has our minds compare the two statements.