Douglass uses the second-person pronoun “your” four times in paragraph four. Why is this significant?
At the end of paragraph 6, Douglass writes: “To side with the right, against the wrong, with the weak against the strong, and with the oppressed against the oppressor! Here lies the merit, and the one which, of all others, seems fashionable in our day. The cause of liberty may be stabbed by the men who glory in the deeds of your fathers.” What subtle and ironic message is Douglass sending with these words?
At the end of paragraph 31, Douglass alludes to both “Abraham” and “Washington.” What is the purpose of this rhetoric?
Paragraph 33 begins, “I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.” What distinction is Douglass drawing throughout this paragraph?
In paragraph 35, Douglass proclaims, “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” What does this mean?
Identify the rather clever rhetorical device that Douglass uses in paragraph 38 where he begins, “What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not.”
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