Rhetorical Triangle
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Speaker: Frederick Douglass is the narrator and speaker in his own autobiography. He is born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and grows up under the atrocities of slavery. Frederick realizes that literacy can lead to freedom for all blacks and works his hardest to attain this highly coveted knowledge. He eventually escapes his master's wrath and runs away to New York where he gains his own freedom. Frederick becomes an advocate for the abolition movement and travels around giving inspiring speeches on the subject.
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Subject: Throughout his narrative, Douglass responds to the ignorance of the American public who does not understand the truths concerning the practice of slavery. Douglass includes detailed descriptions of the brutal characteristics and practices that slaveholders thought to be justifiable in order to make his audience more aware of the harsh realities. He designates it as one of his main points to represent slavery as immoral and as a great injustice to humanity as a whole. As a part of this representation, Douglass criticizes the hypocrisy of the 'pious' men who participate in the practice of slavery. In his narrative, Douglass confronts the American public's oblivion to the injustices of slavery, and he records history from the perspective of those experiencing it first hand.
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Audience: The intended audience of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the American public as a whole, but more specifically, the novel is aimed towards the abolitionists of the time. Douglass also targets those who do not recognize slavery as unjust or unethical as his audience. Douglass hopes to reveal the truths behind the practice of slavery and the inhumanity which blacks, including himself, endure under the oppression of slaveholders. He appeals to this audience in hopes that all Americans could attain something out of the message of his personal struggle in his narrative.
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