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Opening a window into the past with Douglass’ writing

     Ethos, pathos, and logos are often used throughout a piece of writing to appeal to the reader in various ways, whether its using pathos to emotionally draw the reader in, ethos to appeal to the audience via the author’s character, or logos to appeal to the logical side of the audience. Pathos is often used by Frederick Douglass in his writing to try and include the reader in the story on an emotional level, discussing all his hardships and day to day experiences so that they can attempt to just slightly better comprehend the hellish day to day world he lived in. Pathos is used heavily especially in chapter 2, when Douglass is describing his life as a slave on a plantation, and dealing with being treated as if they were livestock; this scene best illustrates this as Douglass discusses the sleeping situation on the plantation, “...on one common bed, - the cold, damp floor, - each covering himself or herself in their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are summoned to the field by the driver’s horn.” The use of descriptive words like “cold, damp” and “miserable” help the reader better envision the plantation Douglass describes, and also emotionally draws them in as these words are being used to describe the decrepit living situation that Douglass had to deal with daily. Although we’ll never truly be able to know how bad these experiences actually were, the use of pathos in this text helps paint a better picture for all the readers to better grasp and envision Douglass’ awful situation.

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